Race Across America

In January 2003 Tom Hooker, the tall guy with black hair wearing red, white and blue (who looks a bit like Bruce Springsteen) in this photo walked through Upshur County during a walk across the continental United States. I interviewed him for The
Mirror and he pitched his tent and camped out one night in my back
yard before continuing his walk. The next day he toured our offices
and the Historic Upshur Museum before continuing east. He is a
small-town type himself, having grown up in Maryville, Missouri, in
the northwest corner of that state.

A few weeks ago Tom Hooker emailed me that he was about to do another
tandem bike "Race Across America." I just happened to click on the
link this morning at around the same time he and Rachel McGrady, his
partner, finished the 3,000-mile course. There was another tandem team
and they traded out making their way across the country. Tom is 46 and
Rachel is 32. Tom had just gone through a divorce in 2003. Rachel
describes him somewhere on this site as her "sweetheart" while, at
this point, he admits only to being "taken" with Rachel. They are both
in absolutely incredible physical condition, almost needless to say.

I like what Rachel says in the latest entry of the Guestbook:

"This experience was so much more than a race across the country, much
greater things happened within us all. Among many things I walk away
knowing with out a doubt that we can accomplish anything we set our
minds to – we are so much greater then we know!!
Love to you all!
Rachel"

Evening devotional by Charles Haddon Spurgeonn

"That those things which cannot be shaken may remain." {#Heb 12:27}

We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken", and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is my Father still. In my Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled." You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate nature-nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, "My Beloved is mine, and I am his." Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer�s ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earth-born, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

Hometown recalls soldier who gave his all

Have you ever thought about this, young people? How about just stop volunteering for this $h!t. College money ain't everything.

Zarqawi: dead or maybe not

I can no longer find a link for this, but I blog it due to its entertainment value, if nothing else. I am trying to decide whom I want to resemble.

Basra,
A document has surfaced from the US Central Intelligence Agency to British Intelligence MI-6 requesting assistance in acquiring information regarding an Al Qaeda program code named Star Mirror. The document now almost two years old
details a program of Genetic masking or replicating. The programe involves the subject having his DNA altered with radioactive isotopes then with the use of stem cells mixed with donor DNA taking on the physical appearance of the donor.

The possibility of the programe first surfaced when three Al Qaeda suspects photographs appeared to match in a CIA data base, the suspects were however in three different locations. One was in Afghanistan one was in Iraq and one in captivity at Guantanamo. Blood samples and fingerprints showed genetic alterations in all three suspects, two of the suspects had identical fingerprints while the third were very similar. The document speculates that the process takes some time to achieve an exact replication, that the third suspect had started the process at a later date and was incomplete. It goes on to describe that from like genetic backgrounds the process might be complete in days while general physical appearance might be altered in as little as forty eight hours. Pointing out that dissimilar backgrounds would take longer. Two of the recent suicides at the American detention center were reported to be central players in the Star Mirror program.

An unnamed American source stated, “It sure would answer a lot of questions. Like why we can’t find Osama Bin Laden. He might have walked right past us! Or how Zarqawi was killed in Fallujah at the same time he was sighted in Beirut and now we’ve killed him again.” The American source went on to say, “This whole story has the entire intelligence community shaking in their boots. There is so much we don’t know, how wide spread is this program how easy is it to perform? Is this why there have been no further Al Qaeda attacks in the United States? Hell, for all we know Osama Bin Laden could be the Mayor of Omaha by now.”

The document says it is believed that the technology was obtained from Chinese military intelligence working through a Pakistani intermediary. Purportedly a Saudi businessman made a one hundred million pound payment through a bank in Dubai.
Because of the wide spread use of abortion in China the stream of stem cells would be endless. It is unknown if the process is a one-time affair or if it requires continued treatments. What we know is limited the American source said what we do know is that it seems to have at least one Genetic error or marker; It causes the feet to become very wide. That’s probably the real reason they want you to take your shoes off at the airport. We also know that is doesn’t alter retinal scans.

The CIA was asking MI-6 in the document for increased surveillance of Arabs living in the United Kingdom. Specific materials being sought in regards to this case, Syringes, lead shielding and vests similar to those used by X ray technicians. The implications that Al Qaeda could replicate anyone’s physical appearance are terrifying.
Al Qaeda could possibly be infiltrating a hundred replicants a month into the United States or the United Kingdom.

The knowledge of the document has been suppressed in the US until now. Stating that the existence of this program has been discovered by several media outlets investigating the detention camps being constructed in the US by KBR (Kellogg, Brown& Root). It may be required the document says to detain thousands to determine who is a replicant and who is not. Elections may need to be voided and high profile persons removed to assure the true genetic makeup of the government.
The source goes on to say that a cover story such as epidemic like bird flu would be used to avoid panic in the streets. The document asked that all available information
be given to the CIA not later than October 1, 2006. Perhaps Zarqawi’s dead or perhaps not.

Adam Sherwood, all rights reserved Reuters Inc

Bush: Chavez doing 'disservice' to Venezuela

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/06/07/bush.venezuela/

"It's going to take awhile. Sometimes leaders show up who do a great disservice to the traditions and people of a country."

But enough about me, Bush added. Let's talk about Chavez now.

Sam Houston explains why it doesn't matter what Andrew Sullivan thinks

http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=27899&Disp=4#C4

I am Sam Houston

Okay, so maybe I'm not. It's not as delusion as claiming one is Jesus or something. I do attempt to channel to some extent what our great founding father would think about today's predicament. Initially he was opposed to secession, but later on when it became inevitable, he wanted Texas to go back to being a Republic. He NEVER wanted to join the CSA, though. And rightly so. The Southerners are the driving force behind our war-criminal military which has now earned us in hard fashion the enmity of most of the rest of the world and certainly ALL of the civilized world.

http://www.freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=27738&Disp=45#C45

Funny that you mentioned survival in "one piece." I contend that the reason the U.S.A. is now a dysfunctional superpower (although not as super as we might have thought before Iraq) in danger of implosion is because two separate national cultures of peoples were forced to remain together as one political entity during the bloodshed of 1861-1865.

There would have been no fundamentalist takeover of the federal government had Lincoln REALLY been a statesman and allowed the Confederate States to go their separate ways. Of course, you would now be living in a Third World backwater as South Carolina is heavily dependent on the federal government. Most of the South would be in the same predicament. Military Keynesianism has been the main driver lifting many of these states into anything resembling a First World economy. Texas had oil to go along with all the military largesse, but most of them did not.

The Scots-Irish-dominated culture of the Old Confederate states was never destined to coexist peaceably with the Anglo-German-Dutch-dominated North. We are now going to witness another "culture war" between these two groups with the "marriage protection amendment" being brought up this week.

Countries of homogeneous populations with unified cultures do not waste their time on "social issues." The Disunited States of America's government looks for ways to waste time on these issues, because it has no solution for anything else. Literally the house is burning down around us financially and the man of the house has locked the doors from the outside to force us to listen to his latest "hellfire and brimstone" sermon. Yes, the flames are drawing closer, preacher.

Sam Houston