As usual, not a whole lot going on here.

Saturday we went to Saylorville Lake (up towards Grimes, Polk City, north side of Des Moines) for a birthday bash for Rodney (nephew who had the triple bypass a couple of weeks ago). Celebrating his 50th (so was his wife Cathy, but that was sort of not spoken about). The family was camping out for the weekend up there. So quite a few there and we had a blast.

While there, wife’s brother Sam calls and he and a few other of the siblings had gone to Lucas for some reunion of friends. Of course wife told him where we were at and that it would be a bit late before we left and probably Joe (me) would not want to go from Saylorville down to Lucas. And we did not go…hahahahhahaha

Surprise guests at the birthday party? Dick and Marilyn came by. Marilyn is the older sister of Linda who had died last month. Was great to have them drop by and to get to talk to them. She passed out a nice little booklet she had made about her sister Linda. Full of pictures most had not seen before. Wife was thrilled. Oh, and it was noted by all that Linda had died 7 years to the day after her brother (wife’s first husband).

So we had fun going up there and being with everyone. I even avoided drinking any beer! Though I was sorely tempted but wife reminded me who was driving. Cake and homemade ice cream was enjoyed by all (again, I resisted the urge for seconds).

Friday our cousins had their baby girl born. The doctors went ahead and delivered the baby via c-section. Mom and the baby are doing good. They got to leave the hospital Sunday so instead of going right home, they stopped by to let Aunt Louise enjoy her great-granddaughter. Am sure the wife said today that when we go tomorrow to visit Aunt Louise she will give us a complete rundown on the visit. Aunt Louise had said a few times that she would not live to see her great-granddaughter. Well, she did! Then while there, we have to talk her into leaving to go to her daughter’s house for a get together of the family. That should be fun, trying to convince her that I will push her out the room and to the van. But will try my hardest. Maybe really pour on the Texas charm?

Yesterday our granddaughter dropped by (Sydney) and wife was on the phone for a long time. She had came by to pick up the rolls my wife had baked. Anyways, as she was leaving, my wife still on the phone, she whispers to my wife “I was at the doctor the other day and he said I am 5 foot tall. That makes me finally taller than you!”. Yes, my wife is a little thing at 4′ 11″ and Sydney has always wanted to end up taller than grandmother!

And school is now in session. School started today here. Am sure school is in session everywhere, so please do drive carefully, especially driving by schools and school buses.

We got back about 30 minutes ago from my wife’s hairdresser in St. Charles. She had her hair cut again short and styled up real nice. Told her, she looks gorgeous. Did find out one small fact while there as I was reading some magazine (how come no men’s magazines at hairdressers?) and that is Rachel Ray has never been in Iowa. Wife said, who wants her?

Weather is again hot today, at 87F. But forecast is some rain coming through here early in the morning and then the cool weather will set in for the rest of the week.

And that is it for me today! You all take care and stay out of trouble.

Did you ever wonder why earrings became so popular with men?

A man is at work one day when he notices that his co-worker is wearing an earring.

The man knows his co-worker to be a normally conservative fellow, and is curious about his sudden change in “fashion sense”

The man walks up to him and says, “I didn’t know you were into earrings.”

“Don’t make such a big deal, it’s only an earring,” he replies sheepishly.

His friend falls silent for a few minutes, but then his curiosity prods him to ask, “So, how long have you been wearing one?”

“Ever since my wife found it in my truck.”

————

Some interesting information. Check out the sites.

Italy: All the Pope’s Gentlemen

Cannabis and the Brain: A User’s Guide

Japanese Centenarians Missing; One Found in Son’s Backpack

YOU THINK YOU GOT RID OF COOKIES? THINK AGAIN!!! READ THIS. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE FF INSTALL TO TAKE CARE OF THIS PROBLEM. SEE FULL URL

A wide swath of the ‘Net’s top websites, including MTV, ESPN, MySpace, Hulu, ABC, NBC and Scribd, were sued in federal court Friday on the grounds they violated federal computer intrusion law by secretly using storage in Adobe’s Flash player to recreate cookies deleted by users.

Flash cookies are used by many of the ‘Net’s top websites for a variety of purposes, from setting default volume levels on video players to assigning a unique ID to users that tracks them no matter what browser they use. (Disclosure: The last time we reported on this issue, we found that Wired.com used one to set video preferences.)

Privacy lawsuit targets ‘Net giants over “zombie” cookies

Last combat brigade leaving Iraq

A line of Strykers convoy in the early hours of Aug. 16, as part of the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, United States Division-CenterÂ’s last patrol through Iraq as they leave theater. The 4th SBCT is the last combat brigade to leave theater. Photo by Sgt. Kimberly Johnson

article, photos found here

Today is Friday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2010. There are 133 days left in the year.

I am now trying my level headed best to not take sides on the entire Ground Zero mosque uproar. I can see both sides of this argument. I can also see that the far-left and the far-right are WAY off base on the entire thing. So when I ran across this earlier, and had read it all (you better read it all dammit), I am now middle of the road.

Plus the history of muslims in the USA is a long history! If you search out, you can find a long of information about the muslims in American. Thomas Jefferson himself, as president, welcomed the FIRST muslim ambassador to the USA.

Face it people, there are nut jobs in ALL religions! I am not talking about going back to the Crusades or anything in history, but today. Not going there today.

Jonah Goldberg at National Review has an excellent view of what a “tolerant” society we really are. Here is an excerpt, but read the whole thing.

This is an incredibly, amazingly tolerant country. That’s one of the reasons why we grow so many fewer (which is not to say none) homegrown Jihadis than they do in Europe. The openness of our country is how and why the 9/11 terrorists were so successful. And, despite that fact, this country remained astoundingly open and tolerant. The supposedly “crusading” and bloodthirsty President Bush could barely finish a sentence without saying “Islam means peace.” And, contrary to the perversely disfigured narrative constructed by the Left and much of the media, the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the overwhelming majority of supposedly bigoted conservatives, have acquitted themselves honorably and decently. Whatever excesses, real or alleged, that have come from the justice system or from main street, are by any historical standard — including any previous analogous period in American history — trivial.

And yet, every time there is an Islamic terrorist attack, we’re told that we must brace for yet another anti-Muslim backlash, which never arrives.
……………..

In any decent society, tolerance must work both ways. If the majority is expected to show respect for a minority, the minority must also show some tolerance for the values of the majority. I’m no strict majoritarian – one with right on his side is the majority as far as I’m concerned. But this isn’t a clear-cut issue of right and wrong. It’s more complicated than that. It’s about deference and decency and common sense. And one of the things common sense should tell us is that it is not only unfair but terribly ill-advised to portray 7 out of 10 Americans as bigots when they are anything but.

————————

Okay a few more items about the mosque.

Is the 9/11 Mosque a Publicity Stunt?

This is from Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Please read the entire letter, but it says in part:

Mr. President this is not about religious freedom. It is about the importance of the World Trade Center site to the psyche of the American People. It is about a blatant attack on our sovereignty by people whose ideology ultimately demands the elimination of our way of life. While Imam Faisal Rauf may not share their violent tendencies he does seem to share a belief that Islamic structures are a political statement and even Ground Zero should be looked upon through the lens of political Islam and not a solely American one.

As a Muslim desperate to reform his faith, your remarks take us backwards from the day that my faith will come into modernity. I do not stand to eliminate Imam Rauf’s religious freedom; I stand to make sure that my children’s religious freedom will be determined by the liberty guaranteed in the American Constitution and not by clerics or leaders who are apologists for shar’iah law and will tell me what religious freedom is.

‘Park 51′, ‘The Cordoba House’ or whatever they are calling it today should not be built, not because it is not their right to do it – but because it is not right to do it.” Mr. President, your involvement in this issue is divisive not uniting. Your follow-up stating that ‘you will not speak to the wisdom of the construction of that mosque and center’ indicates a passive-aggressive meddling on your part that only marginalizes those Muslim and non-Muslim voices against it while pretending to understand both sides of the debate.

via NRO