The Supreme Court (Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council) voted 5-4 to rescind bans on sonar use in training exercises off the California coast. Those bans were implemented by lower federal courts. The ruling states that the lower courts exceeded their authority in those actions.

The bans were in place presumably to protect sea life from the negative effects of sonar use… effects that have been researched by organizations like the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). I can not speak directly to the integrity of the research, but it seems the concerns bear consideration. Perhaps not a knee-jerk response, since sonar has been in regular use for decades now, but enough careful consideration that if sea life is truly being impacted, specifically by excessive noise (and sonar is not the only source of noise that is produced by human activities in the ocean), then we can look at appropriate legal imperatives to provide adequate protection without hog-tying the Navy from being adequately prepared for real battles.

The Court was not, in this case, judging [...]

Thank goodness we have today, Veterans Day, to remind us of the sacrifice given by so many millions of men and women over the past 233 years (really more, when you think about it). The day today is specifically designated for those that are living, but their sacrifice is no less than those who have died in action (factoid: November 11 was designated due it being the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice of World War I in 1918) .

Although it should not be constrained to this day, we all know someone, who has served our country as a member of the military. Find as many of those people as possible and thank them. You don’t have to overdo it… just a simple thank you is enough. So many of these folks walk through life having given everything they can, putting their lives on the line and on hold, making a mess of their family, so that you and I can can live in a country where we don’t have to worry about losing our freedoms. Serving is a sacrifice, and family members of those serving share in that sacrifice.

Most of us live with little of a care in life, our biggest challenge [...]

Great news! Books For Soldiers made their $70,000 Fund Raising goal and will NOT have to close!

BFS provides an awesome service to our deployed military members, and I hope we can continue to support this vital ministry for years to come!

Thank you to all of you that donated to and promoted this urgent need over the past few months!

2009 fundraising is now in progress… please keep Books For Soldiers in mind as you consider year-end and ongoing charitable giving.

Just $2,800 left to meet the critical donation level required by the BFS Board of Directors! What’s amazing is that the original deadline was October 31 (they plan to close the operation if the $70,000 is not reached), and you’d have never thought they could get this close by that date!

Fortunately, as we mentioned two weeks ago, the Board extended the deadline to November 30. Can you give $50? $100? Okay, yeah, if you have $2,800 to spare, go for it! This is a vital service to our men and women on active duty overseas, and I know[...]

Passed on by a friend of mine today (click image to open video)…

I can’t add a thing to that.

Great news!

Since a week ago when I last posted on this topic, Books For Soldiers has been able to raise another $4,000! Thank you for all you’ve done so far, including passing this word along to others!

They still need another $13,500. The good news is, the organization’s directors, who had given them until October 31 to raise a total of $70,000 ($56,500 raised so far) or face closing, have extended this[...]

Just a little more than two weeks and it’s over! Not the General Election, but the existence of Books For Soldiers. These folks have been providing books and videos for our soldiers for several years now, and for lack of $17,500 raised by October 31, they will have to close their doors come December 31. We talked about this back in May, and a lot of progress has been made, but the work is not done!

We cannot let this happen! This organization has the process down cold, they have great creds and do a super job. Thousands of soldiers have been served by BFS.

Won’t you please act now? Go to this link and make a donation now. If every visitor to this site this coming weeks makes a $50 donation, the money would be completely raised. I donated a few months ago, and will again this week… won’t you?

You know how I think about our men women in uniform… they are the line that protects us from our enemies, and they are our best friends. They serve us night and day, risking their very lives, without asking for anything in return. Let’s take this opportunity to serve them back!

Today was the first day of the Iowa State Fair.  I had intended to participate in the early morning event (but slept in instead) to break the record for the most corn-dogs eaten by the most people at the same time in the same place.  Sounds like it was a rip-roaring success, with over 15,000 [...]

Well, it took almost 3 months, but Congress finally passed the bill today, on older version of which was  passed by the House in May, after some considerable back and forth between the Senate and the House.  The bill is HR 3221 (pdf), titled: “Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008″.
The entire bill is over [...]

Odd, that someone of Obama’s education and political experience is “puzzled” that anything he has to say would not elicit some reaction.  Worse yet, after taking such a strong position on Iraq and providing such a specific plan to withdraw troops (still on his web site today):
Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from [...]