The Bird Who Would Be King...

Not sure why this caught my eye, but it is a strange story of Arctic avarice gone amok...

Eagle causes power outage - Juneau

About 10,000 Juneau residents lost power Sunday after a bald eagle lugging a deer head crashed into an Alaska Electric Light & Power transmission system in Lemon Creek.

"You have to live in Alaska to have this kind of outage scenario," said Gayle Wood, an AEL&P spokeswoman. "This is the story of the overly ambitious eagle who evidently found a deer head in the landfill."

The meal was apparently too heavy. The eagle failed to clear transmission lines as it flew from the landfill toward the Lemon Creek Operation Center, she said. When a repair crew arrived, they found the eagle carcass with the deer head nearby.

The outage started about 9:45 a.m. and affected customers in Salmon Creek, Lemon Creek, the Mendenhall Valley and Out the Road, Wood said. It was completely fixed by 10:28 a.m.

"It was a speedy recovery because a crew was already mobilized, and because a customer managed to hear the explosion," Wood said. "So we were able to narrow it in pretty quickly."

The landfill has a program in place to discourage eagles, ravens and other birds from feeding, she said. But this eagle "got a hold of a little bit more than he could handle."

"This would have been a major score," Wood said. "That eagle would have been the king eagle of the Lemon Creek group."

 

• Ken Lewis can be reached at ken.lewis@juneauempire.com.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/012907/loc_20070129013.shtml

Further info- Eagles can lift about 5 lbs. When fishing they often use their wings as paddles to get to shore. Eagles have been known to drown when they try to catch a large fish.

Why don't they let go?  They can't. Their muscles freeze when they get a hold of their prey, and don't relax until they have carried it back to the nest , or wherever they feed.

Source:  Get Lost Magazine - Swimming Eagle

"Share Your Thoughts", said they.

"Share Your Thoughts", said they. So say I.
http://www.gop.com/YourIdeas
The form letter from the GOP's new leaders ;Senator Mel Martinez,
General Chairman of the Republican Party and Mike Duncan, Chairman, Republican National Committee ,asked for my ideas, saying:

"We can’t afford to wait another day. We must return to our roots as the party of freedom and reform, of lower taxes, limited government, individual responsibility, freedom here and abroad, and the power of faith.

As we begin this new chapter, share with us your ideas on how we can make our Party stronger, now and in 2008."

So I did. No original thought here, but if the GOP IS the party of freedom,lower taxes, etc. we need to stand up and boldly say so.The alternative is to lie down and be mere contrarians as the Dems and their media allies are allowed to set an agenda of defeat, taxation and government intrusion that dims the light of Liberty.

My shared thoughts were these:

"Hugh Hewitt said it best.
Win the war. Confirm the judges. Cut the taxes. Control the spending.

Add to that: SECURE THE BORDER, and we can win it back.
Don't expect to win without a succinct message.

Tell Americans how we will do these, WHY they are important, why they MUST be done, tell them again, and tell them that you told them.

You are fighting a media whose template is: "Which one of the Dems is going to retake the White House?"
Deal with it. Fight like men, don't be pushed off your main points by every wave of bad press.
That is, DON'T BACK DOWN, THINKING THAT YOU WILL MAKE FRIENDS OF THE NY TIMES AND THEIR ILK. YOU WON'T.

These issues are more than political footballs, do them. Don't think that you will win by being merely the contrarians . Republicans must have a conservative message to win. Win the war. Confirm the judges. Cut the taxes. Control the spending. SECURE THE BORDER.

PS
Dump Hagel."

Your thoughts?

Regards, Terry

Quotes From STEPHEN WRIGHT :

The World According to Steven Wright

• I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place.
• Last week, I went to a furniture store to look for a decaffeinated coffee table. They couldn't help me.
• What's another word for "thesaurus"?
• When I get real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great parking spot, then sit in my car and count how many people ask if I'm leaving.
• When I was a kid, we had a quicksand box in the backyard. I was an only child . . . eventually.
• I bought some batteries, but they weren't included. So I had to buy them again.
• For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.
• I have a switch in my apartment that doesn't do anything. Every once in a while I turn it on and off. One day I got a call from a guy in France who said, "Cut it out!"
• I replaced the headlights on my car with strobe lights. Now it looks like I'm the only one moving.
• I wrote a song, but I can't read music. Every time I hear a new song on the radio, I think "Hey, maybe I wrote that."
• I got my driver's license photo taken out of focus on purpose. Now when I get pulled over the cop looks at it (moving it nearer and farther, trying to see it clearly)... and says, "Here, you can go."
• I went to a general store, but they wouldn't let me buy anything specific.
• I turned my air conditioner the other way around, and it got cold out. The weatherman said, "I don't understand it. It was supposed to be 80 degrees out today." I said "Oops . . ."
• I put contact lenses in my dog's eyes. They had little pictures of cats on them. Then I took one out and he ran around in circles.
• I spilled Spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.
• My neighbor has a circular driveway. He can't get out.
• I bought some powdered water, but I didn't know what to add.
• I put instant coffee in a microwave and almost went back in time.
• I have an answering machine in my car. It says, "I'm home now, but leave a message and I'll call when I'm out."
• I bought a house on a one-way dead-end road. I don't know how I got there.
• I have a hobby. I have the world's largest collection of sea shells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you've seen some of it.
• I Xeroxed a mirror. Now I have an extra Xerox machine.
• Last week I forgot how to ride a bicycle.
• My school colors were clear.
• I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wakeup letter.
• I'm taking La maze classes. I'm not having a baby, I'm just having trouble breathing.
• When I was in high school, I got in trouble with my girlfriend's Dad. He said, "I want my daughter back by 8:15." I said, "The middle of August? Cool!"
• My girlfriend's weird. One day she asked me, "If you could know how and when you were going to die, would you want to know?" I said, "No." She said, "Okay, forget it."
• I went for a walk last night and she asked me how long I was going to be gone. I said, "The whole time."
• My buddy got busted for counterfeiting. He was making pennies. They caught him because he was putting the heads and tails on the wrong sides.
• He's in a minimum security prison now; he's on a whiffle-ball and chain.
• Hermits have no peer pressure.
• Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories .
• There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
• How much deeper would the ocean be if sponges didn't live there?
• Did Washington just flash a quarter for his ID?
• I just got skylights put in my place. The people who live above me are furious.
• Imagine if birds were tickled by feathers.
• I remember when the candle shop burned down. Everyone stood around singing "Happy Birthday".
• I accidentally installed the deer whistles on my car backwards. Now everywhere I go, I'm chased by a herd of deer.
• I got stopped by a cop the other day. He said, "Why'd you run that stop sign?" I said, "Because I don't believe everything I read."
• It doesn't matter what temperature a room is, it's always room temperature.
• Yesterday, my eyeglass prescription ran out.
• I'm a peripheral visionary.
• I make my own water - two glasses of H, one glass of O.
• Ballerinas are always on their toes. Why don't they just get taller ballerinas?
• The other day, I went to a tourist information booth and asked, "Tell me about some of the people who were here last year."
• Why in a country of free speech, are there phone bills?

Link to Quotes From STEPHEN WRIGHT :

Brrr cold Brrr

Beneath this photo , on Drudge today is the ironic link to :

Pelosi Announces 'Global Warming' Panel

More 'global warming' like this, and polar bears will feel at home in the orange orchards.

Elliot Abrams blogged about the cold before it clobberred LA. Interesting reading.

More snow coming here, the long stretch of mild weather is a distant memory.

Link to DRUDGE REPORT 2007®

704 Houser Street: The Latest List of Vincent Van Gogh Relatives

These are really awful puns. Hope you enjoy them as much as I .

I am testing the 'blog thiis' feature of IE 7.

This is only a test....

Terry

___________________________________________________

The Latest List of Vincent Van Gogh Relatives

After much careful research it has been discovered that the artist Vincent Van Gogh had many relatives. Among them were:

His obnoxious brother, Please Gogh.
His dizzy aunt, Verti Gogh.
The brother who ate prunes, Gotta Gogh.
The brother who worked at a convenience store, Stop n' Gogh.
The grandfather from Yugoslavia, U Gogh.
The brother who bleached his clothes white, Hue Gogh.
The cousin from Illinois, Chica Gogh.
His magician uncle, Wherediddy Gogh.
His Mexican cousin, Amee Gogh.
The Mexican cousin's American half brother, Grin Gogh.
The nephew who drove a stage coach, Wellsfar Gogh.
The constipated uncle, Cant Gogh.
The ballroom dancing aunt, Tan Gogh.
The bird lover uncle, Flamin Gogh.
His nephew psychoanalyst, E Gogh.
The fruit loving cousin, Man Gogh.
An aunt who taught positive thinking, Wayto Gogh.
The little bouncy nephew, Poe Gogh.
A sister who loved disco, Go Gogh.
His Italian uncle, Day Gogh.
And his niece who travels the country in a van, Winnie Bay Gogh.

Link to 704 Houser Street: The Latest List of Vincent Van Gogh Relatives

Bush Critics Call for More Troops in Iraq

hat tip to The Bulwinkle Blog

Headline: "Bush Critics Call for More Troops in Iraq" !
Of course, that was an AP story from Thursday, June 30, 2005.

Sen. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic opponent in last year's presidential election, told NBC's "Today" show that the borders of Iraq "are porous" and said "we don't have enough troops" there.
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," disputed Bush's notion that sufficient troops are in place.
"I'm going to send him the phone numbers of the very generals and flag officers that I met on Memorial Day when I was in Iraq," the Delaware Democrat said. "There's not enough force on the ground now to mount a real counterinsurgency."
Biden argued, "The course that we are on now is not a course of success. He (Bush) has to get more folks involved. He has to stand up that army more quickly."

I heard a Pelosi quote from Meet the Press in which she called for more troops also.

What will we hear from the critics tomorrow?

We need victory in Iraq, something Bush's critics will continue to thwart.
I don't know if more troops is the answer, Mike Reagan says we out number the insurgents 20-1 now. We may just need to rework rules of engagement that prevent our troops from doing what they are trained to do.

I've seen a sign in a nearby window- "Support our troops, bring them home." Bull.
Let's support our troops, and their mission. Let's resolve to settle for nothing less than victory. It will take military and diplomatic action, and moral and political resolve to win.
We must win in Iraq. The veiled threats of withholding funding for the "Surge" by Sen."Bulge" Kennedy are trial baloons for defeat in Iraq, which would embolden terrorists.

Here's some good news : 50 terrorists killed, 20 captured in Baghdad Tuesday!

A highlight- "At one point, insurgents fired machine guns and RPGs from a mosque, prompting U.S. forces to return fire, Damon said." A good sign, if the forces (500 Iraqi, and 400 US in this battle) are willing to shoot back -even if the enemy hides in a mosque.

A lowlight- At story's end, CNN. com lists the running tally of US and UK "fatalities in Iraq".
At the risk of seeming morbid in this 'Age of Sensitivity', I'd like to know how many terrorists we are capturing or killing.