If it wasn't for the Jaguars last week I would still be at 100% for predicting the outcomes of the NFL games.
So far that is the only one I have missed - including the games today!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Celebrity Chef
Paul McCartney making Mashed Potatoes.
And you thought he could only write the world's greatest songs, didn't you!
From the people that matter
The results are in from the people that matter - the people actually voting:
Obama wins the first debate hands down
In every poll Obama is the winner of the first debate "in the opinion of actual voters" with a average of 50% saying he won and all McPain could do was an average of 24%.
24% - hardly a winning percentage as the repugicans are still vainly trying to claim.
Also, if you factor in the inherent racial bias cited at 6% - that would be 56% for Obama and 18% for McPain ... should the bigots vote for the candidate rather than the 'race'.
No matter how you slice it Obama won.
In every poll Obama is the winner of the first debate "in the opinion of actual voters" with a average of 50% saying he won and all McPain could do was an average of 24%.
24% - hardly a winning percentage as the repugicans are still vainly trying to claim.
Also, if you factor in the inherent racial bias cited at 6% - that would be 56% for Obama and 18% for McPain ... should the bigots vote for the candidate rather than the 'race'.
No matter how you slice it Obama won.
The campaign theme song
The McPalin campaign announced it's new theme song more in keeping with it's true tone and nature:
Lies - The Knickerbockers
Stem cell breakthrough: Scientists Find Way to Regress Adult Cells to Embryonic State
The researchers said they found a safe way to coax adult cells to regress into an embryonic state, alleviating what had been the most worrisome uncertainty about developing the cells into potential cures.
Daily Funny
A LITTLE BRITISH HUMOR
The train was quite crowded, so a U. S. Marine walked the entire length looking for a seat, but the only seat left was taken by a well dressed, middle-aged, French woman's poodle.
The war-weary Marine asked, 'Ma'am, may I have that seat?'
The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular 'Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat.'
The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was under that dog.
'Please, ma'am. May I sit down? I'm very tired.'
She snorted, 'Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!'
This time the Marine didn't say a word; he just picked up the little dog, tossed it out the train window, and sat down.
The woman shrieked, 'Someone must defend my honor! This American should be put in his place!'
An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, 'Sir, you Americans often seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You hold the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong side of the road. And now, sir, you seem to have thrown the wrong bitch out the window.'
North Carolina to buy Grandfather Mountain
This is great news ...
North Carolina is buying the nearly 6,000-foot Grandfather Mountain peak and about 2,600 surrounding acres of wilderness, preserving an iconic natural treasure enjoyed by generations.
The $12 million deal also gives the state a conservation easement on the 600-acre park area, popular with visitors for its Mile High Swinging Bridge, nature museum and animal habitat that includes the mountain's beloved bears. The deal, to be announced Monday, is intended to protect the land and its abundant wildlife and vegetation from development.
Read the Full Story here.
Obama in North Carolina
Fresh from winning the first presidential debate, Democrat Barack Obama said Saturday that his Repugican rival, John McPain, is not clued into the economic struggles of average Americans.
“Through 90 minutes of debate, John McPain had a lot to say about me, but he didn't have anything to say about you,” Obama told a sprawling crowd in downtown Greensboro that police estimated at 20,000.
“He didn't even say the words, ‘middle class,'” Obama said. “He didn't even say the words ‘working people.'”
Obama, the Illinois senator, along with his vice presidential running mate, Joe Biden, sought repeatedly to tie McPain to the policies of the shrub on both the economy and the war in Iraq.
The post-debate trip to North Carolina – followed by a stop later in the day in Virginia – underscored the importance that Obama is placing on two traditionally red-leaning Southern states.
This was the fourth general election appearance by Obama in North Carolina, where he continues to draw immense crowds not seen here since 1980. It was Biden's second visit.
By comparison, McPain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have yet to campaign here, and McPain officials could not say when they might.
Buzz Jacobs, McCain's Southeastern regional director, said McCain would do well in North Carolina in part because rural conservatives trusted his foreign policy experience and because they liked McCain's ideas of tax cuts, trimming back government and eliminating waste. He said that while Obama talked about the current financial crisis, McCain suspended his campaign this week and returned to Washington to address it.
Some in the crowd had traveled distances to see Obama.
Among them was Joan McNamara, an elderly retired school teacher from New Bern, who left her house at 4 a.m. to attend the noon-time rally.
“I don't think he (Mcpain) would raise his finger if I was sick,” McNamara said. “He (Obama) is a people person. He wants to do things for people.”
Biden, the Delaware senator, questioned McPain's wisdom on foreign affairs, leading the crowd on a “John McPain is wrong” mantra. He said McPain was wrong about the people of Iraq viewing Americans as liberators, wrong about the presence of weapons of mass destruction, and wrong that Afghanistan had been pacified.
“At this point we need more than a brave soldier,” Biden said referring to McPain. “We need a wise leader.”
Obama spent most of his time talking about the financial crisis, which he said was caused by “greed and irresponsibility” on both Wall Street and in Washington.
He tied McPain to the sort of deregulation that contributed to Wall Street's problems. And he derided McPain's claim that he would take on special interests.
“He says he'll take on the corporate lobbyists, but he put seven of the biggest lobbyists in Washington in charge of his campaign,” Obama said. “And if you think those lobbyists are working day and night to elect my opponent just to put themselves out of business, well, I've got a bridge to sell you up in Alaska.”
Obama said he would support the $700 billion bailout plan only if it met several conditions:
1. An independent board, selected by Democrats and Republicans, must oversee how the money is spent.
2. The $700 billion must eventually be returned to taxpayers.
3. The bailout must also help homeowners struggling to stay in their homes.
4. The CEOs who wrecked their companies cannot be financially rewarded.
“I will not allow this program to become a welfare program for Wall Street speculators,” Obama said.
Obama made his speech in front of the J. Douglas Galyon Depot, an old Southern Railway train station, amid tight security, including rooftop sharpshooters. The crowd spread out for several city blocks, and large sections of downtown Greensboro were barricaded. Obama and Biden walked on stage to the strains of rocker Bruce Springsteen's “The Rising.”
The highest-ranking Democratic candidate to appear with Obama was Ronnie Ansley, the Democratic candidate for state agriculture commissioner. But several Democratic leaders are scheduled to hold a news conference for Obama on Monday at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh.
Waterfall Wonderland
Need a waterfall to soup up your autumn getaway? That splashing sound is closer than you think. And better than ever.
For the past several years, DuPont State Forest – two hours west of Charlotte – has offered a triple treat: three tumbling cascades that can be viewed in one morning's hike. Since February, waterfall-watchers have been able to add a fourth by stretching their walk another couple of miles.
At the 10,400-acre forest between Hendersonville and Brevard, three spots – Hooker, Triple and High falls – have been where visitors gathered to watch the Little River take succeeding plunges down a mountainside on its way to Cascade Lake.
Now, with a 35-acre gift from E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., you can walk from High Falls to the spot higher up the river where famous Bridal Veil Falls sends a spray of sparkling drops down a long, sloping incline of rock. Previously, Bridal Veil was accessed only by a two-mile hike from another section of the forest.
“Hike” is the operative word at DuPont. Though there are several parking lots on its edges, the only way into the forest is on foot or horseback unless you rent one of the forest's picnic shelters (or if you're disabled – you'll get a special drive-in permit).
Start at the Hooker Falls parking lot, by the Little River bridge on DuPont Road-Staton Road. (The road's name changes at the Henderson-Transylvania county line.) A quarter-mile trail leads to a handicapped-accessible viewing area and a small beach beside the 12-foot falls.
The scene might look familiar: It figured in the movie “Last of the Mohicans.” When his enemies were closing in, hero Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis, although a stuntman performs in this particular scene) soared off Hooker in a canoe and escaped.
Across the road, and a half-mile up the mountain, you'll reach three-tiered, 150-foot- high Triple Falls. A half-mile farther up is 120-foot High Falls. Go another 1.5 to 2 miles, and you're at Bridal Veil. The entire round trip is more than five miles, David Brown estimates. He supervises DuPont for the N.C. Forest Service.
Trails and roads are detailed and rated as easy, moderate or difficult in $8 waterproof maps available through www.dupontforest.com. You can also download a free maps from the Internet.
Vehicles are generally prohibited because there's not enough parking space to accommodate many cars, Brown says. They end up being parked roadside, destroying the vegetation the forest service strives to protect.
Not to mention wrecking the peace and quiet that distinguishes the forest from a public park, says a member of the auxiliary organization Friends of DuPont Forest. Chris McDonnell practically shudders as he utters the term “boom boxes.” The 400-member group helps build trails and sponsor events. It compiles information, offers information at kiosks and runs the forest's Web site.
DuPont's hardwoods and pines serve as a teaching forest for the state, illustrating good forest-management practices.
For most of the 120,000 visitors a year, however, the forest is primarily a beautiful spot – sometimes as backdrop for weddings, often the scene of family reunions. The head count, by the way, rivals the count at N.C. state parks, where average annual attendance varies from 70,000 to 1 million.
Though there's an impressive stone chimney at one shelter – a relic of an old mountain lodge – no open fires are permitted. Neither is camping. Swimming and wading are permitted in five forest lakes and in pools below the falls, but not at the top of the falls or the middle section of Triple Falls. Climbing on rocks beside the falls is prohibited.
Hikers, mountain bikers, marathoners and equestrians share the 80 miles of trails, which are largely maintained by volunteers, many of them from the Pisgah region of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association and the Pisgah Trailblazers, an equestrian club. Guided horseback rides are arranged through nearby Ultimate Ride Campground.
Anglers cast into the river and the lakes, the largest of which, Lake Julia, is 99 acres. Trout fishing around the falls is subject to a delayed-harvest rule: Whatever's caught October-May has to be released. Hunting is permitted in season in the forest, but the area around the falls is off-limits.
Track teams train in DuPont, and Hendersonville has its annual 26.2-mile DuPont Marathon here. The run, which attracts up to 500 entrants, will be Oct. 12.
“About one-quarter of our entire users are mountain bikers,” Brown says. That's about 25,000 cyclists annually, coming from a wide area.
“If you're in DuPont State Forest in March or April, you will see a bunch of Canadians,” says Woody Keen, a cyclist and Friends of DuPont Forest member. It's still snowing in Canada when wildflowers, including yellow and pink lady slippers, are getting ready to bloom at DuPont, he says. “The scenic beauty of the area, the climate, the weather, the waterfalls, those are big draws.”
There was a time all of this was largely unknown. The forest was the site of a DuPont X-ray plant, and only company employees enjoyed the falls and the recreation they provided.
In 1996, DuPont sold the plant and offered the state more than 7,000 acres, including Hooker Falls, on favorable terms. In 2000, after the Triple and High falls area came within a hair's-breadth of becoming a gated housing development, the state exercised its right of eminent domain and bought those falls and surrounding acreage for $24.5 million. In February, DuPont gave the state the 35 acres that gives new access to Bridal Veil Falls.
A wide assortment of the forest's fans pitches in on a continuing basis. Building construction technology classes led by Eric Hurley at Western Piedmont Community College, in Morganton, are responsible for many of the physical improvements. They include stairs that wind down steep rocks to Triple Falls, sturdy picnic tables at several locations and a pier at Lake Julia. “I love that place,” says Hurley, who played a British soldier in “Mohicans.”
Even non-hikers get a chance to “love that place” two weekends each year, when the Friends sponsor their Tour de Falls. They rent small school buses and operate a shuttle to Triple, High and Bridal Veil falls and Lake Julia. The $10 tours are on Mother's Day weekend and, this year, Oct. 18-19. The tickets go fast. Last fall, several hundred people had to be turned away.
Once on the buses, sightseers can get off at any stop and eat whatever picnic lunch they've brought, then hop on the next shuttle. “Every 20 minutes there's something going by,” McDonnell says.
Or, if they're mesmerized by the sight of a falls, they can do like Hurley: “I love just going down there and sitting on a rock.”
Taliban assassins kill ranking Afghan policewoman
Two Taliban assassins on a motorbike shot and killed a senior policewoman as she left for work in Afghanistan's largest southern city Sunday and gravely wounded her son.
Malalai Kakar, 41, who led Kandahar city's department of crimes against women, was leaving home Sunday when she was killed, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Her 18-year-old son was wounded, he said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Militants frequently attack projects, schools and businesses run by women. The hard-line Taliban regime, which was ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, did not allow women outside the home without a male escort.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the assassination, as did the European Union, which said it was "appalled by the brutal targeting" of Kakar.
"Any murder of a police officer is to be condemned, but the killing of a female officer whose service was not only to her country, but to Afghan women, to whom Ms. Kakar served as an example, is particularly abhorrent," the EU said in a statement.
Elsewhere in Kandahar province, a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a border police convoy in Spin Boldak district, killing three policemen and three civilians, said the regional border police chief, Abdul Razzaq.
The blast wounded 17 others, including 15 civilians and two officers, Razzaq said.
Taliban militants use suicide attacks in their campaign against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. The majority of the victims in such bombings are civilians.
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