Tornados

Here are some pictures from the storm damage here in Springfield, IL. Some folks were not as fortunate as our family.

NCAA Today

March Madness kicks off today. If anyone made picks on ESPN and doesn't have a group to join, you can join the group called 'Crazy Phillips Family' by entering our high school mascot as the password. Anyone who gets in the group and wants to side bet a six pack, let me know in the comments for this post.

Craziness from Missouri

My man Andy's keeping his eye on things back in Missouri for me. It's getting easier for me to say I'm from Illinois.

Makes My Blood Boil

Dana Reeve died this week. In my reading about her I found this. I had no idea. Make sure you click the link and read the column from the time of Christopher Reeve's death. It made me angry and sad.

Darfur

The Senate did it last week. It's time for the American public to do it now. We need to pledge troops to NATO to help secure Darfur until a UN peacekeeping mission can intervene. Tell the President not to fail Darfur the way President Clinton failed Rwanda.

SPLASH!

Here's one of the balls that didn't make it back to Illinois.

I know what you're thinking: it looks like Lloyd. It's really Seamhead though.

Listening to Drive By Truckers . . .

These guys are good.

Don’t call what your wearing an outfit. Don’t ever say your car is broke.
Don’t sing with a fake British accent. Don’t act like your family’s a joke.
Have fun, but stay clear of the needle, call home on your sister’s birthday.
Don’t tell them you’re bigger than Jesus, Don’t give it away.

Live From Palm Springs

Roy and I are off on a little golfing adventure. We've spent the last three days on various golf courses in Palm Springs, CA. It's sunny and warm. The weather has been perfect. My golf however, leaves a bit to be desired. After we return, we'll post more photos and stories. Hafa adai.

Blog Daddy Takes Us To Daytona

Don't miss Blog Daddy's post about this weekend's upcoming Daytona 500. Remember, root for the 99! Go Carl!

The Mighty Quinn

JP was able to snap this at Wal-mart in Columbia yesterday.

A Couple of Suggestions

Here's two things you can do to make your life a little better in the middle of a cold winter:

1) Get Jeff's CD. I have been listening to the one my sister sent for my Mom. There's some good stuff on there.

2) Get Tom Russell's "The Long Way Around." RWP and Skeeter Master will tell you this guy is an awesome storyteller. These songs are great. I can't stop listening to it.

It's Finally Here!

I've been waiting for this. It's got 5 blades! And another one on the back of the razor! I've got to get me one of those. I guess I follow new razors the way some guys follow the models of their favorite cars. I yearn for razor advancements the way some guys yearn for the latest in Golf technology or the way JP anticipates the latest, greatest Frisbee. (Is it possible to improve the Frisbee?) Someday, I'll have a razor with 50 blades on it. Shaving will take about 30 seconds. And my head will be as smooth as a marble countertop.

When Are We Going to Mars?

The most disappointing part of the State of the Union for me was the stuff that was left out. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to hear more about the Mars trip. I mean Bush said we were going to send a man to walk on Mars!!! When is he going to follow up on that?

Oh, he didn't mean it literally . . .

I wonder what else he didn't mean literally.

Thoughts and Prayers

Everyone keep Boz, Tammy, and the Miller familly in your thoughts and prayers this week. Boz's father passed away this weekend.

Google Right From This Page . . .

If you check the right-hand column on the blog now, you'll see the new Google search box. Along with the Google Ads it is a chance for the blog to earn a few cents. I'm hoping eventually to get this blog off of blogger.com and onto hardware that we can have some control over.

If you want do to a Google search, do it from the blog, and Google will toss a few cents into the hardware kitty.

Finally . . .

You'll find another great resource for Spiritual inspiration on my blogroll. I finally added my friend Dale's blog to my links. Dale is yet another pastor friend of mine. I've enjoyed his posts on Gnosticism. So go over there and learn something. (I know Travis will go there.) And say hey to him as well.

Now This is Scientific Progress

I bet they didn't have trouble finding volunteers for this study.

JP's Lost Rant

Let me just say how incredibly lucky all of your eyes are that my prior response, which I wrote this morning, somehow got lost, for I had fallen into a tirade about the US Governments dirty little wars, diversions, meddling, etc. in Latin America.
See here for the latest laugh riot of a lie by US govt:

Maybe we're just there to supply humanitarian aid. From this piece:

"Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the U.S. government has spent millions to support discredited right-wing political parties and stifle grassroots movements in Bolivia."

Man, it's hard to love freedom as much as we North Americans do!! Damn grass-rooters.
You do have to scroll down through the story a bit to get to the funny part about how the tri-border area of Bolivia/Paraguay/Argentina is a hotbed of islamic terrorist activity. Guffaw. Chortle. Belly-laugh.
If you do read the whole article, however, you will note that once again the US government (keepers of freedom; terrorist fighters) are poised to intervene in what is none of our damn business. President Morales was elected in what all observers call a fair and honest election. Well, that sounds like democracy and freedom to me, how about you?
You know what does NOT sound like freedom and democracy? No? Well, I'll tell you: A government using terrorist tactics (subversion, invasion, monetary "discipline," etc.) to change the fair and democratically decided course of a country.

Please take the following quiz:
When the US government invades Bolivia, they should use the following tag line:
A) We are fighting fiendish Coca farmers who are destroying the very fabric of our society. Coca farmers hate freedom.
B) We are fighting islamic terrorist who have infiltrated the very fabric of Bolivian society. And they hate freedom, too.
C) We received a secret message that said aliens would fly out of President Morales' ass and blow up your child's school if we didn't off him good and quick. Aliens are freedom-haters.
D) We thought that we could pad the pockets of a lot of our richest constituants if we could just somehow give them the natural gas fields of Bolivia. Also, it would more firmly entrench our empire to "adopt" our little, darky southern brothers. Bootlicking bolivians and rich constituents love freedom!

What is this, a fucking game of RISK? This is some serious crap, my friends. And we are (once again) headed towards doing what is wrong.

It seems to me that the person or groups that are labeled "terrorist" has a lot to do with point of view.
Well, I ranted again. I guess your eyes weren't spared.

**POST WRITTEN BY Jagua Piru**

I've been waiting . . .

I'm glad to see this. It's time that we started to stand up against the agents of the administration who attempt to denigrate the military service of their political opponents. James Webb, an ex-marine, was secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan.