What happened between the Cat and the Canary?

Drop over to Dr. Zaius and see what happened between the Cat and the Canary.

Nerd Test

Thanks to Blue Gal for posting about this.

To serve man

[W]hat is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?

He goes well with asparagus??? ;)

New Life for old vinyl

This device plays vinyl records with laser light, maximizing audio fidelity and minimizing album wear. Unfortunately the price tag is a bit steep - models start at $9K plus shipping from Japan.

Bush on the economy

Seems the video has been pulled, but should be available directly from ABC

more Mt. Evans

Flowers on Mt. Evans

Mount Evans is the road into the sky. Drive from 8,700 feet at Idaho Spring where you turn of Interstate 70 to 14,240 feet to the summit and you will pass through 3 life zones, passing ancient trees, lakes and forest to the land above timberline.

I took almost 300 photos on our trip this weekend. I'll post more as I weed through them.them.

Dr.Larry Hunter

... is a lifelong Republican. He's a supply-side conservative, that worked in the Reagan White House. He was a co-author of the Republican Contract with America. He served on Bob Dole's presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack Kemp's Empower America. He's voting for Obama!


Why you may ask?

... I don't take Obama at his word. That may sound cynical. But the fact that he says just about all the wrong things on domestic issues doesn't bother me as much as it once would have. After all, the Republicans said all the right things - fiscal responsibility, spending restraint - and it didn't mean a thing. It is a sad commentary on American politics today, but it's taken as a given that politicians, all of them, must pander, obfuscate and prevaricate.

Even if my hopes on domestic policy are dashed and Obama reveals himself as an unreconstructed, dyed-in-the-wool, big-government liberal, I'm still voting for him.

These past eight years, we have spent over a trillion dollars on foreign soil - and lost countless lives - and done what I consider irreparable damage to our Constitution.

If economic damage from well-intentioned but misbegotten Obama economic schemes is the ransom we must pay him to clean up this foreign policy mess, then so be it. It's not nearly as costly as enduring four more years of what we suffered the last eight years.

Gas Pain

Spay or Neuter your teen

For a change, PETA is actually making sense.

No Country for old men

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Magic wand

At the presidents new conference yesterday, when asked how he would help with the recent spike in the cost of gasoline, he responded that he wishes he could just wave a magic wand to make them go away. This impotent statement is ironic from a man who in the 2000 election insisted that he'd make Saudi Arabia keep up production to lower prices at the pump.

According to senior vice president of Exxon Mobil, Stephen Simon , there are four factors contributing to the current price of gas:

1. supply and demand
2. the weak dollar
3. geopolitical risk
4. Speculation

According to this same VP, supply and demand accounts for about $50-55 dollars of the cost of a barrel of oil. Current demand is artificially high because developing countries such as China and India subsidize the cost of fuel within their borders, thereby insulating their consumers from rising world oil prices as the supply tightens.

The dollar has lost about 45% of its value it the world market. Since the cost of oil is tied to the dollar, the price has gone up to compensate for the dollars decline in value.

Geopolitical risk - war in the middle east makes the markets jumpy and inflates the price.

And in last nights speech Bush admitted that speculation plays an important role in the recent price jump.

So the president claims he is powerless to do anything. But is he really.

There are three easy things he could do right this moment.

1. He could attempt to control inflation by increasing interest rates, and thereby propping up the value of the dollar.
2. He could influence supply by tapping into the strategic reserve.
3. He could try to reduce the impact of speculation through regulation.

Instead his only solution is to open new oil leases off Florida and California, and open up more of Alaska to drilling. A solution that at best would take 7-13 years to produce oil, and would result in an increase of supply of less than one percent of the global oil market. If a one percent addition to the market would make that much a difference, surely the administration could release oil from the strategic reserve and get the same impact immediately.

Wild Fire

We've had a little wild fire today in the flat irons behind Boulder. A friend has some great photos on her blog of the event.

Sign of the times or bad parent award?

Parents Trading Naming Rights for Their Child for $100 Fuel Card

Florida: David and Samantha Partin have agreed to give naming rights for their son who is due in December to two radio DJs on WHTQ 96.5FM in return for a $100 fuel card. David won the competition which was for the most interesting trade for the card.

The DJs have decided that the boy will be named 'Dixon and Willoughby' with 'and' being a name. Samantha has agreed to the scheme, saying that it will give the lad an interesting tale and they had agreed that if it was a boy David would name it.

Some friends of the Partins have upped the ante with an offer of $300 for naming rights on the boy. After seeing the offer David and Samantha are opening up the naming rights to the highest bidder.

Short News

Cat Humor

More dog play

Puppy Play

Happy 4th of July

Took a long walk this morning around the wetlands near our house. The marsh was quite full and lush, a big change from last month. Kelly took a quick dip in the pond and we continued on our way.


The wild flowers are past their peak, but are still nice.


The wild grass is on the other hand at its peak. We even found some wild asparagus.


Kelly getting a little dog salad on the walk.