Happy New Year!

It is amazing... this little site, intended for friends and family, has been visited by folks from all over the country and the world!

In America, Jaxonia has friends from Alaska to Florida; worldwide, we've had visitors from every continent. Jaxonia is most popular in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, but we have readers from Turkay, Israel, India, China, Korea, Malaysia, Austria... mind-boggling, isn't it?

Anyway, we wish all of you a very Happy New Year. Let's all try to work hard, and maybe even pray a little, to make 2009 better than 2008. (It shouldn't be difficult!)

Happy New Year Hockey -- Outdoors!

CHICAGO � Adam Burish was dressed in layers nearly two years ago, ready for any type of cold when he took the ice in a U.S. college hockey game at Green Bay's Lambeau Field. He learned quickly that no extra insulation was needed.

Instincts take over once you start skating, no matter the conditions.

The Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings are expecting the same reaction Thursday when they play outdoors at Wrigley Field in the second Winter Classic.


"You're so excited about the atmosphere and where you're at, the cold's not going to bother you," said Burish, formerly at the University of Wisconsin and now a forward with the Blackhawks.

In that game between the Badgers and Ohio State, the temperature was -2 C.

"I wore a T-shirt like I normally wore and some long pants, and that was it," Burish recalled. "They gave us a bunch of undergear like football players wear.

"I wore it for warmups and said the heck with it. You're so revved up, so excited, you're not going to be cold."

Chicago's winter has already been wacky, with about a half-dozen snowfalls, ice, wicked winds, wind chills way into double figures below freezing and then a major melting day when temperatures climbed to around 16 C.

The forecast for Thursday is for temperatures around -1 C and cloudy.
The challenge for Dan Craig, the NHL's facilities operations manager in charge of putting down the rink and creating the ice, is to make sure the playing surface at the home of the Chicago Cubs is of NHL-caliber.

"What they're going to feel underneath their feet skating will be as close to what they have for an NHL facility and that's going to depend on the day outside," Craig said.

After last year's game in Orchard Park, N.Y., when there were some problems with rough patches of ice that caused some delays for repairs, the NHL had a portable rink and refrigeration unit custom made. It was shipped to Wrigley Field by trailer.

And in contrast to a year ago when the rink was hastily assembled at the Buffalo Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium in eight days, workers will have had more than two weeks to fine tune.

"We're hoping for (-3 C) weather and then our machines just sit there in cruise because the temperature we want on the surface is (-6 C)," Craig said.

Inclement weather is a test for both the players and the ice. And it was a factor in last year's game when it snowed during the game between the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.

"The snow that was on the ice, you could not honestly take a slap shot from one end to the other on the ice and get it all the way down there," said Blackhawks defenceman Brian Campbell, who played for the Sabres last year and scored his team's only goal in a 2-1 shootout loss.

The Blackhawks take a club-record nine-game winning streak into Tuesday night's game against the Red Wings in Detroit, sort of a warmup for the highly hyped game Thursday that is just the second regular-season NHL game played outdoors in the U.S.

The longtime rivals and Original Six franchises typically draw sellout crowds to Chicago's United Center when numerous Red Wings fans make the trip to cheer their team.

Tickets have long been sold out for the Winter Classic with a crowd of around 41,000 expected. According to RazorGator.com, tickets it had available early this week were going from between US$225 to $1,449. Last year's game drew a league-record 71,217 fans.

The NHL, Cubs and Blackhawks officials declined to reveal the financial breakdown for the game. The Cubs said they were getting a fee for the use of their facility. And Cubs chairman Crane Kenney said earlier if the field is in need of repair after the hockey game, there is a plan and money assigned in the budget to resurface it before the baseball season arrives this spring.

Sight lines could also be an issue, especially for lower seats. The penalty box will be just to the second base side of the pitcher's mound and the goals on the first-and third-base lines.

"Anytime you take a hockey rink outside an arena and put it into a stadium, you are not going to have optimal sight lines," said Don Renzulli, the NHL's vice-president of events and entertainment. Renzulli said the league considered a couple other configurations for the rink, but said the current one gives the best viewing to the most people.

Wrigley Field, with its familiar ivy that turns green in the summer and covers brick outfield walls, is no newcomer to events other than baseball, where the beloved Cubs are entering their second century without a World Series title.

The neighbourhood park on the north side of the city has hosted boxing and rodeo and was once home to the Chicago Bears before they left after the 1970 season. On a muddy day at Wrigley in 1965, Gale Sayers had one of the greatest individual performances in NFL history, scoring six touchdowns against the 49ers.

Another winter sport, skiing, actually beat hockey to Wrigley by 65 years.

According to the book "Wrigley Field, a Celebration of the Friendly Confines," the stadium hosted a ski competition in January 1944 with the ramp starting in the upper deck and jumpers landing around second base. It drew 6,387 spectators.

Jim Gallagher, who was the Cubs' general manager at the time, summed up that event with comments that could be applicable today.

"It was kind of silly," Gallagher was quoted as saying. "But it was a way to use the ballpark and take in a little bit of money."
Thanks to the Canadian Press

It's Dunham by 3 votes!

Superior Court Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis has ordered that the certificate of election issued to Republican Jerry Stevenson be invalidated and a new certificate of election be issued to Democrat Dan Dunham so that he can be sworn into office at the January 1st reorganization meeting of the Madison Borough Council.

The victory was achieved by having all properly cast votes counted. Dan is now ahead of Jerry by 3 votes following the re-opened recount.
Mr. Stevenson could further contest this result, but that seems unlikely at this writing.



Click title for previous article

Last-minute Alfred's

Shop early, shop often, shop Madison!

And have a Merry Christmas! (Thanks to Rosenet for this link to Madison stores and businesses:)

Sam Bottoms - 1956-2008

Sam Bottoms, a film and television actor who played the role of California surfer-turned-GI Lance Johnson in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War epic "Apocalypse Now," has died. He was 53.

Bottoms died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles of glioblastoma multiforme, a virulent brain cancer, said his wife, Laura Bickford.

The brother of actors Timothy, Joseph and Ben Bottoms, Sam made his screen debut as a teenager in Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 film "The Last Picture Show," in which Timothy played one of the leads. Sam played Billy, the mute, mentally handicapped boy.

Then 15, he hadn't expected to be cast in the movie.

Bottoms had traveled from his home in Santa Barbara to Archer City, Tex., to observe the filming, he recalled in a 1993 interview with the Houston Chronicle.

He was sitting on a street corner drinking a Dr. Pepper with his brother when a station wagon rolled by and stopped.

"Peter Bogdanovich gets out," Bottoms recalled, "and says, 'What's your name?'"

When he said he had come to visit his brother, Bogdanovich surprised him by asking, "Do you want to be in the movie?"

Since then, Bottoms appeared in some 30 films, including Clint Eastwood's "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Bronco Billy." More recently, he appeared in "SherryBaby," "Shopgirl" and "Seabiscuit."

He also made guest appearances on TV series such as "NYPD Blue," "The X Files," "Murder, She Wrote" and "21 Jump Street." And he played Cal Trask in the 1981 TV mini-series "East of Eden."

Bottoms was 20 in 1976 when he was cast to play surfer Lance Johnson in "Apocalypse Now," in which he was one of the young sailors who accompany Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) up river in a gunboat for his rendezvous with Marlon Brando's renegade Col. Walter Kurtz.

That comes after Bottoms' scenes with Robert Duvall's surf-obsessed Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, who memorably calls in a napalm strike on the tree line behind a coastal village with a primo surf spot.

Bottoms spent a year and a half filming the movie in the Philippines.

"Francis is a great general, he's a Gen. Patton, a Gen. Sherman, a great leader," Bottoms said in a 2001 interview with The Times. "I was his loyal soldier. I would have done anything he asked. I did, and I'm surprised that I came out of it alive."

Coppola told The Times on Wednesday that in casting young actors to play soldiers in the movie, he had been impressed with Bottoms during improvisational sessions.

"He was a handsome, tall young man and very sweet-natured and seemed to be right for that part," Coppola said. "He, Larry Fishburne and Fred Forrest were like a young family almost to me [during filming], and they went through thick and thin uncomplainingly. We all admired them.

"Sam was an especially likable, beautiful young man. He was quiet and undemanding and always anxious to help and had a nice smile."

Bottoms later played a lieutenant in Coppola's "Gardens of Stone," a 1987 military film set during the Vietnam era.

"Sam was a good actor. Of course, he comes from a family that had a lot of theatrical activity," Coppola said.

Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara on Oct. 17, 1955, and began acting in the Santa Barbara Youth Theatre at age 10.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his two daughters from his first marriage to Susan Arnold, Io and Clara Bottoms; his three brothers; his father, James "Bud" Bottoms; and his mother, Betty Bottoms.

A private funeral will be held today, and a memorial service will be held sometime early next year.

Instead of flowers, donations may be made to Angels Among Us at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, DUMC Box 3624, Durham, N.C., 27710.

By Dennis McLellan, LA Times

We have met the enemy...

...and as Pogo the Possum famously said, "They is us!" Citing costs and the economy, General Motors has bowed out of its advertising sponsorship in the new Yankee Stadium, and the pinstripers, bless their capitalistic hearts, have replaced GM with Audi and Toyota!

When are we ever going to learn that we're all in this together? OK, we can't all trade in our German and Japanese iron tomorrow and buy American; for 30 years GM has delivered an inferior product, and we need to see evidence of some sort of turnaround before we go all patriotic, but cutting off an advertising (and communications)stream is rubbing salt in a grievous wound; replacing it with foreign competition is, well, just cruel.


The Yanks couldn't have sucked it up and given GM a cut rate? They would've made all kinds of good PR, and fans, guaranteed, would've cheered a Chevy Corvette coming in from the bullpen.

They just spent $200+ million for TWO pitchers! A cheapie ROI from GM isn't going to break them.

Pandora's Book Peddler -- and no Fed Ex charges!

Have you seen those signs around town, 'If you love Madison, shop Madison?' It's not just a sign, you know; it's your responsibility.

One of Madison greatest attributes is its downtown area -- cute as a button, almost as if Norman Rockwell designed it. It stays that way ONLY though your patronage.

From now 'til Christmas Jaxonia will try to post a look-see into the various local shopping choices you have. Courtesy of Madison Rosenet, click the title of this article for a listing of Madison's stores and businesses -- tell 'em Jaxonia sent ya! Do your duty: SHOP!

We've got a real uphill climb

You don't throw anything at the President of the United States. Not ever. Not under any circumstances.


OK, this guy has been a bad president. Quite possibly he's the Guinness record holder in the bad president department. But he's still the damn President!
Our wonderful fourth estate, who can't see past their damn noses, has already escalated this shoe-throwing debacle into a major international incident. We should have (I know, shoulda coulda woulda) wrestled this dumbo to the ground, whistled him off to a psychiatric ward somewhere in northern Wisconsin, confiscated all film and video of the event, and moved on. The subsequent article should've been two paragraphs long, on page 3.

Geez! Am I the only sane person left on the internet? :-)

Oh my God! It's the COWS!!

Like we don't have enough to worry about! Well, you're gonna have to find some room between terrorism, the economy, dwindling oil reserves, Africa, pirates and obesity, because... here comes METHANE GAS!

As far as the production of dangerous greenhouse gases go, it's a horse race between cows and automobiles (that's gotta be my best mixed metaphor ever!)Believe it or not, there are more than a billion and a half cows on this planet -- one for every six humans, and their methane gas farts are three times more dangerous, CC for CC, than the toxicity from cars.

Cow scientists (yes there are such people)are working round the clock to pretty up bovine flatulence, which they think they can do by adding more nitrogen to their food.


But we won't be out of the methane woods even if cows start to smell nice, because global warming -- and rising ocean temps -- are threatening to defrost a HUGE undersea supply of, you guessed it -- METHANE HYDRATES! As one wag scientist put it, 'If that source of methane erupts to the surface uncontrolled, the Earth will boil!'


Geez! I really feel a little guilty, worrying about the Jets changing quarterbacks!

Photo Finish!

At the Democratic gathering the evening of the November election there were mixed emotions. Everyone was naturally elated by the Obama landslide, and when Council incumbent Bob Conley won early, a sweep was anticipated.

It was not to be. The race for an open Council seat, between Democrat Dan Dunham and Republican Jerry Stevenson, was neck and neck, and as the night grew long, Stevenson eked out an apparent 42 vote win. Dunham had worked hard for the job, and in his 'concession' speech to the group, he was visibly spent, emotionally and physically. Then Councilman John Elias stepped to the podium.

"This thing is far from over, folks. Forty-two votes is a razor-thin margin, write-ins are still coming in, and we will challenge this result." I don't know if Dan Dunham believed him; I don't know if anyone else really did, but WAS HE EVER ON THE MONEY!

As of this writing the final tally had shrunk to an 8 vote margin, and a requested recount brought that down further, to just a single vote!

Dunham has petitioned state Superior Court to count four more votes -- three provisional votes and one absentee ballot. The absentee ballot specified a vote for "all Democratic candidates" but did not include names, and at least one provisional ballot that was denied was a voter whose name was misspelled.


A hearing could come as early as Dec.19 -- HANG IN THERE DAN BOY!!

The 'Search' bar works!

Look up top, on the left, in the black bar. You can get to see just how relevant (or not) Jaxonia has been over 2008 -- and if you have a favorite, the search engine will find it for you.

American cars -- Inferior from the beginning

And they LIED about it, too!
In November of 1943, the U.S. military conducted a series of tests on several VW type 82 K�belwagens they had captured in North Africa; they concluded that the vehicle was simpler, easier to manufacture and maintain, faster, and more comfortable for four passengers than the U.S. Jeeps. This statement is at odds with U.S. War Department Technical Manual TM-E 30-451, Handbook on German Military Forces, dated 15 March 1945. In this manual (p. 416), it states 'The Volkswagen, the German equivalent of the U.S. Jeep, is inferior in every way except in the comfort of its seating accommodations.'

Right from the get-go, Detroit iron hypnotized us with horsepower while shorting us on automotive advances. Think about it. We were late with radial tires, late with seat belts, and at this writing we are still using cast-iron block, push-rod engines. We use this DECADES-OLD engine technology simply because it works, and Detroit has a stockpile of them. The rest of the world has moved on to lighter aluminum blocks.

Europe also pioneered parallel stroke wipers and, believe it or not, sun roofs.

Don't cry for these guys -- Believe me, they never cared about you..

Bettie Page 1923-2008: Goodbye and Thanks

(from Jaxonia: If you are a male who grew up in the 50s, the almost forgotten magazine covers in the above tribute will transport you back. How innocent we really were!)


by Louis Sahagun, LA Times

Bettie Page, the brunette pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.

Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died Thursday night at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.

A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel -- or nothing at all.



Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products -- Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses -- and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."

Then there are the idealized portraits of her naughty personas -- Nurse Bettie, Jungle Bettie, Voodoo Bettie, Banned in Boston Bettie, Maid Bettie, Crackers in Bed Bettie -- memorialized by such artists as Olivia De Berardinis.

"Exactly what captures the imagination of people in terms of popular culture is something hard to define," Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner once said of Page. "But in Bettie's case, I'd say it's a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern."

According to her agents at CMG Worldwide, Page's official website, www.BettiePage.com, has received about 600 million hits over the last five years.

"Bettie Page captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said Roesler, chairman of the Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, who was at Page's side when she died. "She was a dear friend and a special client and one of the most beautiful and influential women of the 20th century."

A religious woman in her later life, Page was mystified by her influence on modern popular culture. "I have no idea why I'm the only model who has had so much fame so long after quitting work," she said in an interview with The Times in 2006.

She had one request for that interview: that her face not be photographed.

"I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times. . . . I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."

Bettie Mae Page was born April 22, 1923, in Nashville. She was the oldest girl among Roy and Edna Page's six children. Her father, an auto mechanic, "molested all three of his daughters," Page said in the interview.

Her parents divorced in 1933, but life didn't get any easier for Bettie.

"All I ever wanted was a mother who paid attention to me," Page recalled. "She didn't want girls. She thought we were troubleWhen I started menstruating at 13, I thought I was dying because she never taught me anything about that."

After high school, Page earned a teaching credential. But her career in the classroom was short-lived. "I couldn't control my students, especially the boys," she said.

She tried secretarial work and marriage. But by 1948 she had divorced a violent husband and fled to New York City, where she enrolled in acting classes.

She was noticed on the beach at Coney Island by New York police officer and amateur photographer Jerry Tibbs, who introduced her to camera clubs.

Page quickly became a sought-after model, attracting the attention of Irving Klaw and his sister, Paula, who operated a mail-order business specializing in cheesecake and bondage poses.

Under contract with the Klaws, Page was photographed prancing around with a whip, spanking other women, even being hog-tied. She also appeared in 8-millimeter "loops" and feature-length peekaboo films with titles including "Betty Page in High Heels."

"I had lost my ambition and desire to succeed and better myself; I was adrift," Page recalled. "But I could make more money in a few hours modeling than I could earn in a week as a secretary."

Her most professional photographs were taken in 1955 by fashion photographer Bunny Yeager. They included shots of Page lounging with leopards, frolicking in the waves and deep-sea fishing, and a January 1955 Playboy centerfold of her winking under a Santa Claus cap while placing a bulb on a Christmas tree.

At 35, Page walked away from it all. She quit modeling and moved to Florida, where she married a much younger man whose passions, she later learned, were watching television and eating hamburgers.

Page fled from her home in tears after a dispute on New Year's Eve 1959. Down the street, she noticed a white neon sign over a little white church with its door open.

After quietly taking a seat in the back, she had a born-again experience. Page immersed herself in Bible studies and served as a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade.

In 1967, she married for a third time. After that marriage ended in divorce 11 years later, Page plunged into a depression marked by violent mood swings. She got into an argument with her landlady and attacked her with a knife. A judge found her innocent by reason of insanity but sentenced her to 10 years in a California mental institution.

She was released in 1992 from Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County to find that she had unwittingly become a pop-culture icon. A movie titled "The Rocketeer" and the comic book that inspired it contained a Bettie-esque character, triggering a revival, among women as well as men, that continues unabated.

With the help of admirers including Hefner, Page finally began receiving a respectable income for her work.

In an interview published in Playboy magazine in 2007, Page expressed mixed feelings about her achievements.

"When I turned my life over to the lord Jesus I was ashamed of having posed in the nude," she said. "But now, most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude. So I'm not ashamed of it now. But I still don't understand it."

She spent most of her final years in a one-bedroom apartment, reading the Bible, listening to Christian and country tunes, watching westerns on television, catching up on the latest diet and exercise regimens or sometimes perusing secondhand clothing stores.

Occasionally, however, Page was persuaded to visit the Sunset Boulevard penthouse offices of her agents to autograph pinups of herself in the post- World War II years of her prime.

During one such event in early 2006, Page needed about 10 minutes to get through the 10 letters of her name. As she pushed her pen over a portrait of her in a negligee with an ecstatic smile, she laughed and said, "My land! Is that supposed to be me? I was never that pretty."


louis.sahagun@latimes.com

The Immaculate Conception, December 8

Francisco Zurbar�n




(Uh oh -- don't tell me YOU FORGOT?)
The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic dogma, the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus without any stain of original sin, in her mother's womb: the dogma thus says that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divine grace. It is further believed that she lived a life completely free from sin.
Many, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, incorrectly believe the Immaculate Conception to mean the virgin birth of Jesus.



The feast of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated on December 8, was established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV. He did not define the doctrine as a dogma, thus leaving Roman Catholics free to believe in it or not without being accused of heresy; this freedom was reiterated by the Council of Trent. The existence of the feast was a strong indication of the Church's belief in the Immaculate Conception, even before its 19th century definition as a dogma.

The Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma by Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus, on December 8 1854.

The Roman Catholic Church believes the dogma is supported by Scripture (e.g. Mary's being greeted by Angel Gabriel as "full of grace" or "highly favoured"), as well as either directly or indirectly by the writings of many of the Church Fathers, and often calls Mary the Blessed Virgin (Luke 1:48). Catholic theology maintains that, since Jesus became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, it was fitting that she be completely free of sin.

For the Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858. In Lourdes a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed a beautiful lady appeared to her. The lady identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception" and the faithful believe her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation, except where conferences of bishops have decided, with the approval of the Holy See, not to maintain it as such. It is a public holiday in some countries where Roman Catholicism is predominant e.g. Italy. In the Philippines, although this is not a public holiday, the predominance of Catholic Schools make it almost a holiday.

Because of the miracle of the Conception, Mary was spared death. At the end of her life she was 'assumed', body and soul, into heaven. The Assumption of Mary is also Catholic dogma; it is celebrated on August 15.

5 Guys comes to Madison

Any quest for the ultimate hamburger is a fool's exercise; there's simply too much variety out there for any burger to be all things for one person. At '21' in NYC, for example, the burger is made from shaved not ground prime sirloin (secret ingredient: duck fat). At $26, how can one compare it to the White Castle double jalapeno cheeseburger for less than a buck? Burgers of all type and description reside on the slippery slope between those two examples. The truly good ones share a few aspects: they are fresh, not frozen; they come with a plentitude of free extras, and they are grilled, fried, broiled or otherwise cooked with, if not love, at least unabashed enthusiasm.


The first 5 Guys opened in Arlington, VA in 1986 and franchised itself locally pretty quickly. Franchising racheted up dramatically starting in 2002, and now there are over 300 locations in 25 states. (Click on the title for their complete story)


The Jaxonian burger? Mayo, ketchup, tomatoes and lettuce, fried onions, mushrooms and fresh jalapenos -- For $26 eat the '21' burger, or FIVE of these!

Day of Infamy

Rescuing survivors from the USS West Virginia


The Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began on the morning of Sunday, 7 December, 1941. Two attack waves, totalling 350 aircraft were launched from six IJN aircraft carriers which destroyed two U.S. Navy battleships, one minelayer, two destroyers and 188 aircraft. Personnel losses were 2,333 killed and 1,139 wounded. Damaged warships included three cruisers, a destroyer, and six battleships. Of those six, one was deliberately grounded and was later refloated and repaired. Two sank at their berths but were later repaired and both rejoined the fleet late in the war. Vital fuel storage, shipyards, and submarine facilities were not hit. Japanese losses were minimal at 29 aircraft and five midget submarines, with 65 Japanese servicemen killed or wounded.


The pre-emptive strike's intent was to protect Imperial Japan's advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies � for their natural resources such as oil and rubber � by neutralizing the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Both the US and Japan had long-standing contingency plans for war in the Pacific, developed during the 1930s as tension between the two countries steadily increased, focusing on the other's battleships. Japan's expansion into Manchuria and later French Indochina were greeted with increasing levels of embargoes and sanctions from the United States.

In 1940, the US halted further shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools and aviation gas to Japan, which Japan interpreted as an unfriendly act. America continued to export oil to Japan, as it was understood in Washington that cutting off exports could mean Japanese retaliation. In the summer of 1941, the US ceased the export of oil to Japan due to Japan's continued aggressive expansionist policy and because an anticipated eventual American entrance to the war in Europe prompted increased stockpiling and less commercial use of gasoline. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had moved the fleet to Hawaii, and ordered a buildup in the Philippines, to reduce Japanese aggression in China and deter operations against others, including European colonies in Asia. The Japanese high command was certain any attack on the United Kingdom's colonies would inevitably bring the U.S. into the war. A pre-emptive strike appeared the only way Japan could avoid U.S. interference in the Pacific.

The attack was one of the most important engagements of World War II. Occurring before a formal declaration of war, it shocked the American public out of isolationism. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941 "� a date which will live in infamy."

For more on this famous day, including eyewitness accounts, excerpts from diaries, official Navy statistics. FDR's Pearl Harbor speech and more, click on the title.

Let's call it the Nero Syndrome

While history has pretty much absolved Nero of the dastardly act of 'fiddling while Rome burned' -- the violin wasn't invented until the 15th century -- the phrase has survived, and its meaning is clear: to neglect priorities during a crisis.

The modern crisis is global warming, and its latest evidence, clear navigation for the once eternally frozen Northwest Passage, has countries and corporations (bless their pecuniary hearts!) scrambling to capitalize on the new shipping lane.

Are we CRAZY? Are there people out there who actually listen to the claptrap spewed by Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the global warming naysayers? If we don't start thinking big picture soon, the third planet from the sun won't be included in it.


Canada wields the big stick here; because the gateway to the Passage sits in their territorial back yard, they can shut down this rush to plunder with some righteous environmental action -- and the U.S. could step up, too, by sweetening international trade pacts with the Canucks to help compensate for any 'benefits', however misguided, that are foreseen by the Limbaugh nutsos.


The Universe is watching, people; let's try to do the right thing, once!

Don't Cry For Me General Motors

And then there were three. That's capitalism, folks. Start out with a couple of dozen car manufacturers and eventually unbridled competition will crown a champion. We're down to the semi-finals now, and it doesn't look good for the homeys.

Everybody is kicking our butt, from an upstart Korean company most Americans can't spell OR pronounce (Hyundai) to luxury performance sedans that we don't even have competition for (BMW/Audi/Mazda/Mercedes etc.etc.) The automotive version of the OK Corral is here, and guess what? We're the Clantons!

The mighty have indeed fallen, and it's nobody's fault but theirs. From the 1970s on, America's big three had no answers for an increasingly sophisticated and knowledgable car-buying public. When we demanded economy, they gave us Chevettes and Pintos(we bought VWs and Hondas); if you had money to burn you could buy a dressed up Ford they called a Lincoln(We bought Benzes and Beemers.) Pickup trucks are about the only competition we can throw out there these days, and the Japanese have their sights squarely on our last gasps.

We used to make some pretty decent cars (see pics) but it's been decades since anything has really turned our heads.


So then, is it goodbye, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler? I'll shed a tear or two -- I loved my 1954 Ford Skyliner -- but my little MINI (90,000 miles and counting, no rattles, fun to drive and 40 MPG) will keep me smiling.


Curious about those beauties across the top? Top to bottom,left to right: 1936 Lasalle, 1951 Kaiser, 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, 1936 Cord, and a 1936 Duesenberg.

And now for something completely scary

In 1940 New York was the world's largest city, with 7.4 million inhabitants. By 1997 it had dropped to tenth, replaced by Seoul, South Korea's, 10.2 million residents. The global population has grown rapidly in the past 50 years. Consequentially, humanity's impact on the environment is increasing.

When George Washington said farewell to his troops at Fraunces Tavern in New York city, the world had 800,000 inhabitants; when Bobby Thompson hit the homer that sunk the Dodgers in 1951, that figure had grown to 2 1/2 billion. The world's population is right now bucking up against seven billion. Can the planet sustain that kind of growth? All the signs point to a resounding NO.


By Steve Running, NASA's Earth Observation System
It is the moral imperative of our generation to pass on to our children and grandchildren a world that is equal in habitability to the world our parents gave to us. The problem is that as the global population passes 7 billion people, even if individual resource consumption stayed constant, impacts on the biosphere will increase.

However, we seem to be living in bigger houses, driving fancier cars, and flying off to more vacations than our parents did. So per capita resource consumption is not staying constant at all, but increasing. And the developing world is desperately trying to catch up to these living standards of the developed countries. Many developing countries are also making the same mistakes of "development at whatever the environmental cost" that we made 30 years ago. We learned back then that rivers catching on fire and air pollution that forces schoolchildren to stay in at recess is unacceptable. The progress in cleaning up regional pollution in the United States has been remarkable in the last few decades. But now at the end of the 1990s, as we see a globalized economy, we also now see a globally interconnected environment.

Documenting and monitoring biospheric health, just like human health, should not be a political topic. Biospheric health, and more specifically the sustainability of human life on planet Earth, is a topic that cuts across liberals and conservatives, republicans and democrats. We all want the best for our grandchildren, and to pass on to them a livable world. However, until now, global biospheric health has been largely unmeasurable, so discussions and policy development have been handicapped by a paucity of data.

The purpose of EOS is to provide this factual information on trends of change in our biosphere. How we interpret these data, and the course of action we embark on in the next millennium will be a critical political topic. If global change trends turn out to be relatively modest, then only small adjustments in social behavior may be necessary. However if impacts appear to be harmful and accelerating at an unpredictable pace, how can we ignore these early warnings in good conscience? It is essential the new political discussion be based on facts, not conjecture. These are lofty, long range, visionary objectives, similar intellectually to searching for other life in the universe. But global habitability has more immediate significance to us all. Let us hope that EOS allows us to start the new millennium with an enlightened understanding of the changing biosphere.

Another problem Barack faces

You think the economy's in the tank? Worried about Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan? Will we ever get universal health care? Well, you better get your priorities in order, because O Sole Mio is fixin' to take center stage, and when this hot number starts barking, everybody listens.

See those two little dots in the sun's northeast quandrant? Well, my friends, those little spots mark the beginning of Solar Cycle number 24, and before it's over several years from now,well just about anything could happen, most of it bad. Mini Ice Age, disruption and/or destruction of anything electronic, drought, flood... name your poison. Here's the skinny from NASA:

Science Daily (Nov. 11, 2008) � After two-plus years of few sunspots, even fewer solar flares, and a generally eerie calm, the sun is finally showing signs of life.

"I think solar minimum is behind us," says sunspot forecaster David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

His statement is prompted by an October flurry of sunspots. "Last month we counted five sunspot groups," he says. That may not sound like much, but in a year with record-low numbers of sunspots and long stretches of utter spotlessness, five is significant. "This represents a real increase in solar activity."

Even more significant is the fact that four of the five sunspot groups belonged to Solar Cycle 24, the long-awaited next installment of the sun's 11-year solar cycle. "October was the first time we've seen sunspots from new Solar Cycle 24 outnumbering spots from old Solar Cycle 23. It's a good sign that the new cycle is taking off."

Old Solar Cycle 23 peaked in 2000 and has since decayed to low levels. Meanwhile, new Solar Cycle 24 has struggled to get started. 2008 is a year of overlap with both cycles weakly active at the same time. From January to September, the sun produced a total of 22 sunspot groups; 82% of them belonged to old Cycle 23. October added five more; but this time 80% belonged to Cycle 24. The tables have turned.

At first glance, old- and new-cycle sunspots look the same, but they are not. To tell the difference, solar physicists check two things: a sunspot's heliographic latitude and its magnetic polarity. (1) New-cycle sunspots always appear at high latitude, while old-cycle spots cluster around the sun's equator. (2) The magnetic polarity of new-cycle spots is reversed compared to old-cycle spots. Four of October's five sunspot groups satisfied these two criteria for membership in Solar Cycle 24.

The biggest of the new-cycle spots emerged at the end of the month on Halloween. Numbered 1007, or "double-oh seven" for short, the sunspot had two dark cores each wider than Earth connected by active magnetic filaments thousands of kilometers long. Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman took this picture from his backyard observatory in Buffalo, New York:

On Nov. 3rd and again on Nov. 4th, double-oh seven unleashed a series of B-class solar flares. Although B-flares are considered minor, the explosions made themselves felt on Earth. X-rays bathed the dayside of our planet and sent waves of ionization rippling through the atmosphere over Europe. Hams monitoring VLF radio beacons noticed strange "fades" and "surges" caused by the sudden ionospheric disturbances.

Hathaway tamps down the excitement: "We're still years away from solar maximum and, in the meantime, the sun is going to have some more quiet stretches." Even with its flurry of sunspots, the October sun was mostly blank, with zero sunspots on 20 of the month's 31 days.

But it's a start. Stay tuned for solar activity.

Veterans' Day

In June of 1956 I walked across the tarmac at Newark Airport and climbed aboard a Lockheed Super Constellation (right) non-stop to San Antonio, TX. It was my first flight, and the beginning of my four-year enlistment in the United States Air Force. It remains the most exciting and eventful four years of my life.

I was a boy of 17. When I was honorably discharged in July of 1960 I was a man, with a duffel bag full of one-of-a-kind memories. I was trained as a Russian linguist and received the equivalent of a Master's Degree in that language from Syracuse University.
It was the dawn of the Space Age. I traveled around the world, monitoring Russian military and space communications. I also worked as a basic Russian instructor and top secret code breaker.

When Sputnik I fell to Earth, I monitored its descent; when Khrushchev gave America a six-month ultimatum to get out of Berlin, I listened to Soviet preparations for conflict; when Francis Gary Powers's U-2 spyplane (left) was shot down over the USSR, I listened to possible MIG interceptors and the probable missile base that brought him down.


There was fun, too. When Alaska became a state I was in Anchorage. (Now THAT was a party!) I spent a 30-day leave on the Italian Riviera, living in a gypsy camp in the woods outside Bordighera.

And does anyone remember what a B-25 looks like? That was the twin-engine bomber (right) Jimmy Doolittle and his men flew in the famous thirty seconds over Tokyo raid in WWII. In 1960 I flew in the last official Air Force flight of the B-25, from Kelly AFB in Texas to Andrews AFB outside of Washington. I was on my way home to get discharged and the port engine conked out TWICE during the flight!


Every veteran has stories, many of them far more perilous than mine, but all of them with a unique bond; we were all proud soldiers of Uncle Sam. On Veterans' Day, remember who we were, who we are, and big or small, what we did.

(Click the title to visit the Intrepid Museum)

Ode to Sean Hannity

Ode to Sean Hannity

Aping urbanity
Oozing with vanity
Plump as a manatee
Faking humanity
Journalistic calamity
Intellectual inanity
Fox Noise insanity
You're a profanity
Hannity

Thanks to poet John Cleese... Hey! Wanna see Keith Olberman reading this ditty? Click Read more.

Local Voting -- The Tree Ordinance

I think it's safe to assume that the vast majority of Madisonians like trees. I think it's also safe to assume that most of us know next to nothing about their care and feeding; hell, we probably don't know half the species that call Madison home, so it would probably be a good thing to have some kind of protective oversight for our leafy neighbors. Maybe an ordinance of some kind is necessary, but please, let's try to be intelligent about it. Least government is best government here. A tree ordinance should make it difficult for a developer to arbitrarily level a plot of land, but it should not automatically pit that developer against the ghost of Joyce Kilmer. Individual home owners should be held to a different standard, one that upholds their authority over THEIR land and minimizes governmental intrusion on that authority.

Let me say that simpler: If homeowners want to cut down a tree or trees on their property, they should have to notify the town. If the town want to save the tree, well? Let the friendly negotiations begin, but the only trump card the town should hold would be if that tree were imminently endangered and irreplacable; even then the owner should have wiggle room. Maybe the town contracts to periodically prune the tree, or aid in its preservation and upkeep. We just shouldn't be able to arbitrarily save a tree on someone's private property just because we happen to like it.


(You know, the more one writes about this subject, the more this ordinance seems like a bad idea. So I take back everything I said so far. Can cooler heads prevail here? As my sainted grandfather would say, "What's the worst thing that could happen?" Left without an ordinance, will Madison become a macadam parking lot? Very doubtful. Without any oversight, trees appear to have a permanent home in the Rose City. One thing's for certain, though: with an ordinance, the only people who will be happy will be the creators of the ordinance.)

Ain't the Internet Just the Bomb?

Obama-McCain Dance-Off, with a Palin Guest Shot

Levi Stubbs 1936-2008 R.I.P.

There was the Four Tops, and there was everybody else. Click on the title to see and hear MoTown's signature group.

(From Entertainment Weekly)

The Four Tops may have been one of Motown's biggest groups in the '60s, but they seemed to exist in a world beyond Motown. Unlike many of the label's own hand-groomed and manufactured bands, the quartet was around long before Motown started, and its original lineup continued decades after most Motown bands had become tribute acts filled with ringers. Mostly, though, the band differed from other Motown acts thanks to the sheer drama of frontman Levi Stubbs' voice. His baritone had a particular pleading, crying quality that marked hits both upbeat ("I Can't Help Myself," embedded above, "Shake Me Wake Me,") and grim and frightening ("Bernadette," "Standing in the Shadows of Love"). Not for nothing did Billy Bragg title his hit song "Levi Stubbs' Tears."

The group's best songs combined both approaches, as on their masterpiece "Reach Out I'll Be There," where each verse ends with an unbearable buildup of tension, a nail-biting pause, and finally a triumphant resolution. Stubbs sang that song, as he did so many others, like a man drowning in fear and anxiously awaiting rescue. Not that desperation was the only color available to him. HIs vocal performance as the man-eating plant in 1986's Little Shop of Horrors revealed a Stubbs who could be seductive, lascivious, and menacing, and he also found a latter-day sideline doing voices for videogames.

The original Tops lineup stayed together for 43 years, until Lawrence Payton died in 1997, followed by Renaldo "Obie" Benson in 2005. Stubbs' death today at age 72 leaves Abdul "Duke" Fakir the last surviving Top. Click on the title to see and hear the Four Tops at their best, and to leave your personal message.

The best 'Swan Lake'?

You be the judge, but Oh My! Click on the title to view.


The Guandong Acrobatic Company�s extraordinary Chinese Acrobatic Swan Lake - in which Black Swans dance on high wires and the Swan Princess dances on pointe on her partner�s head - has created a worldwide sensation.

In this fresh and original adaptation of Swan Lake, a European prince falls in love with a Chinese swan, and performers use acrobatics and their very considerable talents as classical dancers to tell the story.

Pole balancing, jumping through fire hoops, rope walking, ball walking and jujitsu are all seamlessly woven into the story, and there is constant blurring of performance styles, including not only ballet and acrobatics but also elements of Peking Opera.

Directed by Guangzhou Acrobatic Company�s director Ning Genfu and choreographed by former Hong Kong Ballet principal dancer Zhao Ming, the production grew out of a desire to bring the traditional performing art out of the circus tent and onto the stage. It was created as a co-production with Shanghai City Dance Company.

The Chinese Acrobatic Swan Lake includes scenes in which the White Swan dances on pointe on top of the Prince�s head and shoulders and another in which the famous dance of four little swans is transformed into a performance of four little frogs, played by men who do the entire dance on their arms.

The incredible pas de deux between Wei Baohua's Prince and Wu Zhengdan's White Swan has made the couple � husband and wife in real life � into international stars.

The production proved a hit at its Premiere in Beijing in 2006 and has since thrilled audiences worldwide, from Moscow to New York.

Silliness Startup - Va. officials ban campaign clothing at polls

Jaxonia comments in bold

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) � Virginia voters won't be allowed to wear clothing featuring John McCain or Barack Obama when they head to the polls on Nov. 4.

The State Board of Elections on Tuesday voted to ban clothing and hats as well as buttons and other paraphernalia that directly advocate the election or defeat of a specific candidate or issue.

What about socks and underwear? How about tattoos?

The American Civil Liberties Union argued that the ban violates the First Amendment's right to free speech. The board, however, said it has to weigh that against the right to vote free of undue influence or the tension that candidate advocacy might create.

Efforts to enforce a similar ban are headed to court in Pennsylvania. At least four states � Maine, Montana, Vermont and Kansas � prohibit wearing campaign buttons, stickers and badges inside polling places.

In September, a Pennsylvania Department of State memo � it is not legally binding � advised counties that voters' attire doesn't matter as long as the "voter takes no additional action to attempt to influence other voters." Two Pittsburgh-area elections officials sued to have the memo rescinded.


The two argued that if the memo stands, "nothing would prevent a partisan group from synchronizing a battalion of like-minded individuals ... to descend on a polling place, presenting a domineering, united front, certain to dissuade the average citizen who may privately hold different beliefs."

Bet the house these two are Republicans!

Poll workers in Kentucky were told last month by election officials that they should admit voters with campaign apparel. E-mails had circulated warning that Obama supporters would be turned away if they wore shirts and pins.

Cataract Surgery -- A Piece of Cake!

I love to drive. On the day I first got my license I drove to Memphis to hunt out Elvis and Sun Records. Since that time I have driven (and enjoyed immensely) just about every ground vehicle known to Man, from tanks to semis, motorcycles, sports cars, ATVs and everything in between.
I have always considered myself a competent, if not excellent driver, but I knew I was mortal, and that the consummate skill I had developed would erode with advancing age. I prepared myself for that day, determined not to become one of a growing phalanx of old drivers whose flagging road aptitude endangered themselves and others.


It started to happen around age 60. I thought that was young, but the symptoms were undeniable; night blindness, inability to read signs, everything on the road just a hair or two out of focus. I went through a period of self-denial, but a few really dangerous near-accidents sent me to the ophthalmologist.


The bad news -- a severe case of cataracts.


The good news -- CORRECTIBLE!!


I won't bore you with the miraculous details; just click on this article's headline for those. Suffice it to say, I'm now 20-20, three days away from a trip to South Carolina, and the Northeast Corridor State Police couldn't be happier!

Waving the bloody shirt

During the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, politicians who wanted to remind voters of the horrors of the conflict would physically wave a bloody shirt to bring back memories of casualties. Later, anyone who evoked past war memories for sympathy votes was said to be 'waving the bloody shirt.'

This week there will be a 'news' program, talking in depth to the people who rescued John McCain from his POW camp. As this campaign draws to a close, we can expect more such remembrances.

BEWARE! The Presidency is not a reward for services rendered, it is an office to be filled by a candidate we the voters deem qualified to lead our country. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL!

Paul Newman dead at 83

In an era were legends are created with life spans of 15 minutes, here is one that fits the classical definition. He may not have been Hercules, or Samson or Odysseus, but he represented, with honor, class, and humor, the type of human being to which we should all aspire. Movie star, business entrepreneur, race car driver-enthusiast, social activist... we'll not see his like again anytime soon.

Click the headline for his 'NY Times' obituary

Tell 'em you heard about it here!

They call it 'wrap rage.' It's the frustration one feels trying to open some of those plastic clam shell casings everything seems to be packaged in these days. Last year, in fact, 6,000 poor souls reported to Emergency Rooms around the country with injuries inflicted by hapless opening attempts.

Problem solved! Just click on 'read more.'

English: The most fascinating language

Vertumnus, a portrait of Rudolf II. Now at Skokloster Castle, Sweden.




Many know that the word �muscle� comes from the Latin for �mouse� (rippling under the skin, so to speak). But what about �chagrin�, derived from the Turkish for roughened leather, or scaly sharkskin. Or �lens� which comes from the Latin �lentil� or �window� meaning �eye of wind� in old Norse? Looked at closely, the language comes apart in images, like those strange paintings by Giuseppe Arcimboldo where heads are made of fruit and vegetables.

Not that Henry Hitchings�s book, 'The Secret Life of Words,' is about verbal surrealism. That is an extra pleasure in a book which is really about the way the English language has roamed the world helping itself liberally to words, absorbing them, forgetting where they came from, and moving on with an ever-growing load of exotics, crossbreeds and subtly shaded near-synonyms. It is also about migrations within the language�s own borders, about upward and downward mobility, about words losing their roots, turning up in new surroundings, or lying in wait, like �duvet� which was mentioned by Samuel Johnson, for their moment.


All this is another way of writing history. The Arab etymologies of �saffron�, �crimson� and �sugar� speak of England�s medieval trade with the Arab world. We have �cheque� and �tariff� from this source too, plus �arithmetic� and �algorithm��just as we have �etch� and �sketch� from the Dutch, musical terms from the Italians and philosophical ones from the Germans. French nuance and finesse are everywhere. At every stage, the book is about people and ideas on the move, about invasion, refugees, immigrants, traders, colonists and explorers.

This is a huge subject and one that is almost bound to provoke question-marks and explosions in the margins�soon forgotten in the book�s sheer sweep and scale. A balance between straight history and word history is sometimes difficult to strike, though. There is a feeling, occasionally, of being bundled too fast through complex linguistic developments and usages, or of being given interesting slices of history for the sake, after all, of not much more than a �gong� or a �moccasin�. But it is churlish to carp. The author�s zest and grasp are wonderful. He makes you want to check out everything��carp� and �zest� included. Whatever is hybrid, fluid and unpoliced about English delights him.

English has never had its Acad�mie Fran�aise, but over the centuries it has not lacked furious defenders against foreign �corruption�. There have been rearguard actions to preserve its �manly� pre-Norman origins, even to reconstruct it along Anglo-Saxon lines: �wheel-saddle� for bicycle, �painlore� for pathology. But the omnivorous beast is rampant still. More people speak it as their second language than as their first. Forget the language of Shakespeare. It�s �Globish� now, the language of aspiration. No one owns it, a cause for despair to some. Mr Hitchings admits to wincing occasionally, but almost on principle he is more cheerful than not.


From the latest 'Economist' magazine

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Coverage for 2008

Think global warming is exaggerated? Check out this NASA observation!

Arctic sea ice coverage appears to have reached its lowest extent for the year and the second-lowest amount recorded since the dawn of the satellite era, according to observations from the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) is a high-resolution passive microwave Instrument on NASA�s Aqua satellite. AMSR-E provides a remarkably clear view of sea ice dynamics in greater detail than has ever been seen before. Researchers use this information to study polar bear habitats, plan expeditions to the ice, and to study the interactions between the ocean and sea ice from season to season.
A data visualization shows Arctic sea ice from July 1 to Sept. 10, 2008.

Wanna watch the ice melt? Just click on the headline of this article.

Cave Cave Deus Videt

Hieronymus Bosch, 1485


Of the seven Deadly Sins -- Pride, gluttony, envy, lust, greed and sloth -- Greed has been grabbing the latest headlines.


In the 1987 film , 'Wall Street,' financial shark Gordon Gecco (Michael Douglas)speaks the movie's mantra -- 'Greed is good. Greed Works. Greed Sells'. Now, 20 years later, 'Wall Street' seems more documentary than expose. This is not your fault!

Sure, you're greedy - it's a human trait -- but let's examine the core of that word. There's greed, and then there's GREED,. Small-letter greed is a luxury car, a summer house, someone to cut your grass. Big-letter greed is three or more cars, a villa in Europe, a yacht. Small-letter greed is democracy; big-letter greed is oligarchy.

It's all about words. The end game in a democracy is inclusionary; when one accumulates Billy Gates-sized money, one looks to give back something, to help out the human race. An oligarchy feathers its own nest. How many times do we have to hear the Rush Limbaughs of the world decry 'touchy-feely' people? How many times do we have to listen to them extol the 'virtue' of simply making money for its own sake?

Wall Street in the last eight years didn't give a fig about John Q. Public. Minus any effective regulation, they simply invented more ways to make money; if it eventually burned the average citizen... hey, it's collateral damage.

Neighborhood Action Groups -- Not a good track record

When a neighborhood action group is formed, it is almost always 'against' something, and again, almost always that something is in that neighborhood. It may be a tree someone wants to cut down, or a home someone wants to build; it could be a variance someone wants, or an amenity someone wants to install.

We've had a bunch of these groups started in the Madison/Chatham area, and without exemption they have brought out the worst in the local citizenry. Neighborliness, dialog and compromise give way to lawyering up, bullying tactics and outlandish, worst-case scenarios. We should be ashamed. And here is the rest of it.

Next on the Agenda -- God Laughing

Creationism vs. Science. Perhaps it has been too easy to debunk the former, but the inflated hubris of the scientific community in its exploration of our origin has made few inroads into real understanding, and their latest foray into existential silliness -- the Hadron Collider -- just compounds the problem.

Cosmologists say the Big Bang occurred some 15 billion years ago when an unimaginably dense and hot object the size of a small coin exploded in what was then a void, spewing out matter that expanded rapidly to create stars, planets and eventually life on Earth. The huge Collider, nestled far underground at the Franco-Swiss border, has begun to examine this theory by smashing atomic particles together.

And just to prove that the human race hasn't really progressed much since the Venerable Bede predicted the dates of Easter, we're scared of what might happen! Really. The fear is that the Collider will create tiny black holes that will literally suck in planet Earth.

Talk about suicide on a grand scale, this little opus could make us the laughing stock of the universe. (Hey, did you guys see what those Earth idiots did to themselves yesterday?)

Not to worry. Stephen Hawking -- the modern Bede -- says it can't happen, and even if it does, it'll be so quick you won't feel a thing!

A Point in Passing

How does a small coin exist in a void? I thought voids were, well, you know, void.

A VP Candidate?

OK OK, chances are pretty good that this pic is a Photoshop creation; some enterprising hack thought it would be funny/nasty/wild to put Sarah Palin's head on some hottie's body.

But what if it's real? Would you vote for someone who willingly posed in that outfit? If you've been doing your Jaxonia homework, the answer should be obvious. The picture, true or not, is irrelevant. It says nothing about issues or credentials and precious little about character.

Do NOT fabricate a life story or philosophy from a few pictures or a 30-second sound bite. READ... LISTEN...THINK!

Eleanor -- A movie star made for you

There are Mustangs and there are Mustangs. While many cars are able to hold their identity through the decades (Porsches, Beemers and Benzes come to mind) most American iron have marques that only last until the next quarter's sales results.


Not so with Ford's vaunted pony. Sure, there have been good ones, bad ones, and everything in between, but they all have had an undeniable Mustang look for almost half a century.


If you have a hankering for restoration, any Mustang is a good investment, but if you're looking to be a legend, grab onto a 1967 Shelby GT and have at it.

This beauty, Eleanor, was created for the Nicholas Cage movie, 'Gone in 60 Seconds,' and was so popular it has been recreated for car crazies by an outfit in Oklahoma called Classic Recreations.' (click headline).

Think you could pick up a junker and give them a run for their money? You would need to come in under $190,000! Click 'read more' for the specs.

Specs
S.F.I.750hp


Color availability:
Pepper Grey/Black , Red/White , Black/Silver , Yellow/Black , Blue/White

Drivetrain:
427 CI Keith Craft Crate Engine w/Aluminum Heads (750hp)
Mass Flo Fuel Injection
Procharger 14psi intercooled supercharger
Tremec TKO Manual Transmission
Fab 9- 9" rear w/ 3:70 Gear ratio and Posi Traction installed
Concept One serpentine drive belt system

Steering:
Total Control Power Rack and Pinion
Flaming River Tilt column (polished)

Interior:
Scat Rally series 1000 seats
Simpson 5 point camlock seatbelts
Classic instruments Gauges with Gone in 60 Seconds Logo
180 mph speedometer
Woodgrain Aluminum steering wheel
Old air products A/C system
1967 Deluxe door panels
1967 Deluxe dash and trim
Go-Baby-Go shift ring
Armed NOS switch
Console

Stereo system:
Panasonic cd player w/ removable face
Classic Recreations LLC. custom trap door
DB Drive Audio subwoofer and 2 way speakers

Wheels and tires:
Classic recreations 17X8 front
Classic Recreations 17X9.5 rear
High performance z rated tires 245/45/17 Front
High performance z rated tires 325/35/17 Rear

Exterior:
Sequential taillights
Gone in 60 Seconds Emblems
Functional Gas Cap

Fuel:
Electric Fuel pump
Stealth 18 gal Fuel cell
Mass Flo Fuel injection

Brakes:
Front: Baer 13�X1.1� track system
Rear: 12�X.81� touring system
Slotted, Crossdrilled , zinc washed and vented
Adjustable rear proportioning valve

Electrical:
Trunk mounted battery
Mallory ignition

Exhaust:
JBA Ceramic coated headers
Dual 2.5� Exhaust (functional side exit)
Spintek Mufflers

Cooling:
Aluminum Crossflow Radiator
2-12� electric cooling fans

Chassis:
Subframe connectors
Total Control shock tower bracing
Cosmetic Rollbar

Suspension:
Total Control Front coilover conversion
Total Control sway bars
Total Control rear coilover suspension
Total control adjustable lower control arms