8/8/2010 -- Wow what a summer. It's been hot in Tennessee with record breaking temps as high as 100. We have had a great time with our son Mike and his family.  We've been swimming more than we have in years.

It's been interesting to see the arguments on the Arizona immigration bill. I do find it hard to believe that the Obama administration is objecting to it in court after allowing "sanctuary cities" to flaunt the federal law for so long. This is not a Republican/Democrat issue! This is a situation that the government has allowed to get out of control for years, back to the Nixon Administration. It was made much worse with the Carter amnesty for illegal aliens. But, we have not addressed the issue under republican presidents either!

We have to do a few things about our southern border.

1. We have to secure the border against smuggling of dope, people and exotic animals. This means that we need more people on the border, Border Patrol, National Guard, Army, Coast Guard....all can be used to improve the process. 
2. We need to enact and enforce better laws to keep people from hiring illegal aliens. If illegal's cannot get jobs here they will leave.
3. We need to quit providing social services to illegal aliens. Schools, medical, welfare, etc
4. We need to resolve the issue of the so called anchor children. Illegal aliens come to this country, have a child born here (who is then a citizen) and are allowed to stay because of they are the parents of a citizen. I don't know how to resolve this issue.

I have continued to play chess at the Rutherford county chess club. I feel that there is a possibility that I can play in a USCF tournament this fall if I continue to study openings and end games.

Kathy and I went to the House of Staunton showroom in Toney Al on our way to the Space Center in Huntsville. What a disappointment! They had a few sets out, but they are really just an online store. I was hoping that they would have a display of antique chess sets belonging to the owner, but he has retired and his collection was sold to a museum in Europe.

 6/27/10 -- Well the World Cup was not as successful for the USA as I had hoped. We did get to the knockout round with good results against England, Slovenia and Algeria. But we allowed a goal at the start of the game with Ghana. After equalizing we allowed another goal at the start of overtime. Drat!

The Pacers drafted two wing players in the NBA draft. We still need a point guard. I'm sure we will have to trade for one. I'm going to be real unhappy if we go to the training camp without a new starting point guard.

I went to the Rutherford County Chess Club last Friday. It meets in the Lutheran Church in Murfreesboro, TN. It was interesting to play without a clock for the first time in years. I lost the first game, then drew the next two. All in all I player pretty well. I have a long way to go to get ready to play in a USCF tournament. We are only about 50 miles away from the House of Staunton showroom in Toney, AL. I plan to get down there in the next 2 weeks.....I have promised my wife that I would not buy any more chess sets....LOL

 6/22/10 -- Another long overdue update. Let me see, the US has a good chance to advance in the World Cup. I'd like to see them make a good run the rest of the way, but they need to quit giving up early goals! We had a great time at the Indy 500 this year. A very good race with lots of passing right in front of us. I just wish that the last yellow had not come out, I think Weldon would have won as Dario was short on fuel. The NBA draft day is Thursday, it will be interesting to see what the Pacers do...they need a Point Guard!!!!

4/4/10 -- Oh my! 2 months since an update! Wow! Butler is in the Championship Game of the NCAA tournament! We watched the game with Michigan State and it was most interesting. I'm rooting for Butler to win Monday against Duke, but the Bulldogs will have to shoot better to beat Duke. If they shoot well then they can win. It's hard to believe that we are ready to leave the sunny skies of Tucson and head back east. We plan to spend 2 weeks in Columbia, TN visiting Mike, Amanda and the kids, then go to Indiana for the month of May to visit with Eric & Kat and the rest of our family. I will be working at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the last half of the month and, as we have for several years now, will be attending the race with Steve and Jan. We have great seats right on the outside of the track on the start/finish line. After the race we will be headed back to Tennessee for the rest of the summer. It will be really great spending the summer with Mike, Amanda and the grand kids.

Tucson has been great! The weather has been wonderful (much warmer this year than Florida) and there is so much to do here. We have made much more of an effort to see the area here than we have in the past and we still are not going to see all we want to. We think that we will need to come back in a couple or three years for another winter.

I was looking at our pictures of Alaska yesterday. Already I had forgotten how beautiful the country is there. That is another trip that we will have to repeat before too long. I have one more session with the bridge group, the poker group and the Tucson chess club before we leave. All of them have been great! 

 1/21/10 -- Sorry it's been so long since my last update. A couple of interesting points.

The change in the Senate seat in Massachusetts means that we can now work toward setting up a bi-partisan health care reform bill that will actually help people in the US. (see my notes below)

I'm really disappointed in the Vikings and Bret Farve for their actions at the end of the game with the Cowboys last week. Much as I hate the Cowboys, the Vikings should have run the ball, run out the clock and walked off the field. Passing the ball into the end zone with less than 2 minutes to go on forth down shows a distinct lack of class. I am now rooting for the Saints next week.

We have been enjoying life here in Tucson. It's been warmer than in Florida and there is much to do. We have been to 4 museums and plan another out tomorrow.

I have been doing pretty well in the stock market til the last couple of days. A lack of transparency in the Chinese government as to their banking regulations has put a damper on the market. Hopefully it will stabilize in the next couple of days as I am not positioned for a big drop in the market.

11/25/09 -- The trial of the 911 preps' is going to be a circus, Having that trial in New York City, in a civilian court is the dumbest thing that this administration has done to date! The US is now the laughing stock of the world!

10/30/2009 Ok…time for the political soapbox.

1.    Gore Vidal calls the 13 year old girl that Roman Polanski drugged and raped a “hooker”! Woopie Goldberg says that it wasn’t “rape rape” …..what do you call it when an adult man lures a 13 year old girl into a trap, drugs her, then rapes her? He should have never been allowed to plead guilty to “unlawful sex with an underage child”, he should have been put in the state pen, with a cellmate named Bubba!

2.   The national health care plan: We can do better than is being proposed. How about?
a.   The government writes re-insurance for the health care insurance companies to protect them against catastrophic health care bills.
b.   Restrictions are removed so the insurance companies are able to do business nationally rather than by state so the risk pool is much larger.
c.   Insurance companies are no longer able to reject applicants because of family history or pre existing conditions.
d.   We set up a national health database with all peoples health records so people who are going to a new doctor have the records available.
e.   We change the tort laws to restrict the size of malpractice suit settlements.
f.   We set up a process that any government subsidized insurance is not available to people who are in the country illegally. That means they have to PROVE they are in the country legally.

I feel better now.

10/30/2009 -- Las Vegas...oh my....Played poker at Binion's last nite. Got busted by a guy who got runner runner spades to beat my straight. I'm now about even for all my poker in Reno, Carson City and Vegas. Not too bad! We are going to see Penn & Teller at the RIO tomorrow nite. Should be fun. We will be heading out to the Grand Canyon on Monday.

10/11/2009 -- Went to Lake Tahoe instead of Virginia City yesterday, beautiful area. As usual any hopes we had for the Indiana football team went down when Virginia beat them 47-7...that's a bit embarrassing! I found this article on raising children...you may want to read it. Is it Safe to Let Your Kids Walk to School? (usnews.com)

10/09/2009 -- From Carson City, NV....headed to Virginia City tomorrow. Thought you might be interesting in this article from Reuters: (Link) on the Nobel Prizes.

10/05/09 -- Well back on line. We're here in Reno...I have played poker 3 times since we arrived. I'm up a couple of hundred. I'm pretty happy about that as I wondered how I would do in what I think of as a more professional poker environment. So far I have held my own. We have looked into changing our cell phone (att) and aircard (sprint) but for us these seem to be the best companies. Not much else to talk about, I'll try to update this in a more timely manner now that we have things worked out technically.

Interesting article -- (Link)

8/29/09 -- We are in BC and headed for Vancouver, should be back in the lower 48 by Sept 5th or so. I have read about Ted Kennedy's passing. Whenever I hear of him I wonder what Mary Jo Kapechne's family really thinks of him and how the media would react to someone like Sarah Palin if that happened to one of her aids. Chappaquiddick

Also this on the Lockerbie Bomber -- Link

8/23/09 -- Here is an interesting tidbit from www.snopes.com  about Obama's answer (or lack there of) about his health care plan. http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/network.asp

 8/22/09 -- Hope to leave Valdez tomorrow if our mail comes today. Mail service (or UPS or FexEx) is slow up here.  I'm really excited about the Indiana Pacers and the Indianapolis Colts and can't wait for the seasons to start.

8/5/09 -- musings while waiting for repairs on our trailer. It appears that the Anchorage Public Library is blocking access to www.foxnews.com, www.facebook.com, and www.myspace.com. Wonder why? www.cnn.com seems to be working fine.

7/20/09 -- Here is an article on how radical Islamics recruit new members. (Link) Most interesting. What is the best way to combat such a tactic. Here is another article...don't understand how people can do things like this. (Link) Ok...guess I'm reading too much news - lol - Here's another article. (Link)

 7/18/09 -- Here is an article on the pollution and over fishing of our oceans. This is much more of a problem than the idea that humans are the blame for global warming. Oceans in Trouble

7/9/09 -- Wow more than a month since my last update. Sorry. It's hard to find an internet connection here in Alaska. Just wanted to say that Mt McKinley is unbelievable!!!

6/5/09 -- Politics again...LOL....I was watching TV when I saw someone suggest that the Bush Administration and the FEMA director were criminally responsible for thousands of deaths from Katrina in New Orleans. Sigh....rather than go off on a rant about the sloppy and inaccurate reporting I'll just put a link to an article in Popular Mechanics discussing the myths of Katrina.

5/28/09 -- One more political note (promise that this is the last for at least a couple of days..LOL) Newt Gingrich has called Sotomayer a racist. link While he does have a point of some sort, I think it's minor....however to his point if a  white male was to say "my experience as a white male makes me better than a Latina woman." he would be forced to withdraw his name from consideration...Why do we have a double standard?

5/27/09 -- Ok back to politics...LOL...Sonia Sotomayer is the new nominee to the Supreme Court. She appears to be qualified. What I don't like is the politics of the nomination.  She appears to me to be a play for the Hispanic vote in the US. I agree with this quote from www.cnn.com....

5/23/09 -- It's the day before the 500. I'm already excited. I'm getting together tonite with some friends for a poker game. Hope I get some cards. It looks like we are going to miss the Milwaukee race next weekend..perhaps next year. I plan to have a page with just pictures from Alaska. Hope some of you will be able to check it out as we head out for our newest adventure.

You can add your cell phone to the national do not call list by calling 888-382-1222. You can also sign up online at here: Do not call list

5/13/09 -- Hard to believe that I haven't updated this since the end of April...I'll try to do better. Did anyone see the press conference with Obama and Pelosi about health care today? I believe Obama has some good ideas about this but I almost fell out of the chair when I saw Pelosi jump to get in the last word...what a grandstand play!!! She reminds me more and more of Newt! On a better note the Indy 500 practice and qualifying are going well. I work in the garage area making sure people have the proper credentials to get into the garage. I've had some interesting moments. Perhaps next week I'll put out a compilation. LOL.

I also found some clips on you tube about the 1970 Pacers ABA championship. You may want to check them out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PegXNzkHRsI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PegXNzkHRsI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PegXNzkHRsI&feature=related

4/28/09 -- One more week til I start at the Speedway for the 500. I'm very excited about this year. I had to get some work done on the brakes on the truck...cost me more than I thought it would. We are busy trying to get ready for our summer trip to Alaska. Hope you read the blog. Great Alaskan Adventure

4/17/09 -- We have been visiting Mike & Amanda to help them with their move to Tennessee. We have also spent several days with Eric & Kat. Hopefully the RV dealer will have the part in and we can get back home today. US politics are very interesting right now. The Texas Governor threatens secession...real stupid. Here is an interesting link on Obama's release of the Bush Administration's interrogation guidelines.  Link

4/2/09 -- Back home again in Indiana...due to some family business we're a bit early returning. Interesting how Obama keeps having trouble finding appointees that pay their taxes..More later.

3/19/2009 -- Another beautiful day in Florida. We went biking this am and will play golf tomorrow. My friend Bill is coming down for the Sebring 12 hour race on Saturday. Should be a good one. I have another link to an article that you might want to read...Link

3/12/2009 -- interesting article on Nancy Pelosi...reflects my view....she's as bad as Newt was..Link

3/11/2009 -- Sorry I have been so long in updating this...Since I last updated this we went to Key West, went to an Alligator show, took an air boat ride, watched IndyCar testing at the Sebring Raceway and have played golf.

One of things I have run across on the internet is a record by a St Petersburg newspaper keeping track of President Obama's campaign promises. It's pretty well done and seems to be rather neutral on it's assessment. If you would like to check it out see it here.

2/28/2009 -- Warm and sunny today. I confirmed today that I'll be working at the Sebring 12 hour race. This will be the 2nd time I have worked here. I'm looking forward to the race.

2/10/2009 --- Greetings from sunny Florida...our team won at golf today, no thanks to me...I played poorly. I tied for 1st place in the bridge game..Yea me!!!  I have mentioned before how much I dislike Nancy Pelosi and how her partisan approach to government really bothers me...Here is a perfect example....Read Article from CNN...

2/7/2009 -- Here is a bit of information from the "Mad Money" show with Jim Cramer on CNBC...he has an interesting take on the banking sector.

Cramer thinks that today's rally was about giving Obama a second chance, after he squandered the goodwill he brought into the White House by allowing Nancy Pelosi to load the stimulus plan with pork and issuing statements filled with fear instead of hope. On Monday, the plans for fixing the banks will be announced, and Cramer hopes that they will give the banks forbearance, which will allow them to stop hoarding money to strengthen their balance sheets and lend money again. Now they are being forced to sell assets to satisfy the bank regulations. This strategy was used in the 80's during the Savings & Load crisis. He also thinks that the banks are in better shape now that Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are available to buy assets of failed banks. Cramer also hopes that Obama gives up on the current stimulus plan and puts one together that has stimulus to create jobs and help the infrastructure, commodity, and manufacturing companies.

2/2/2009 --- Wow what a Super Bowl! Normally I don't watch it unless the Colts are playing, but since the Cardinals were such an underdog I tuned in to watch them. Most Super Bowls are a bit boring, this was not. Here's a good article on the game. The Cards showed a great deal of heart to come back and lead the game with 2 minutes to go. Steelers win again  I was a bit disappointed in the commercials. I only saw about 3 that I thought were up to Super Bowl standards.

1/22/09 --- This is an article talking about the problem I saw with Obama before the election. He's never stood up to the democrat party powers, now Pelosi and Reid are trying to set an agenda with more regard to their partisan politics than to the good of the country. You many want to read this: CNN.COM -- Balance of Power

1/18/09 --- It's interesting to see the buildup to the inauguration. This may be the biggest one since Andrew Jackson. That is a bit funny since that election and this one have one similar trait. They were the two dirtiest campaigns in history. The silly internet attacks on both Obama and Palin were nothing short of unbelievable. All in All Obama has handled things pretty well so far. Now he will need to deal with Nancy Pelosi. She is the worst Speaker of the House since Newt Gingrich.  Both are much more interested in satisfying their ego and there ideological goals rather than the future of the country.

1/11/09 --- Here's an article from the Houston Chronicle in November 2008. I picked it up from the News of the Weird website (News of the Weird). Fits in well with my number 1 issue facing America, doesn't it? (Bob's Top Issues Facing America)

A Houston Chronicle investigation revealed in November that Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to act against 75 percent of all self-identified illegal aliens convicted of local crimes in the Houston area recently, including immigrants who had committed felonies ranging up to sexual assault of a child and even capital murder. After ICE declined to hold them, that 75 percent were simply released back into the community. Nationally, during that same approximate time period, ICE was deporting twice as many illegal aliens with clean records (clean, except for being undocumented) as those with criminal rap sheets. [Houston Chronicle, 11-16-08]

12/27/08 Warmer today after the cold and ice we've seen since we been here in Indiana. It's amazing how much the kids have grown since we were here just a couple of months ago. Watching them on Christmas was most exciting. When I was a kid it was exciting to get presents, now it's every bit as exciting to see the kids open theirs. Our return flight to Florida is on New Years Day at 7am, which means we will need to be at the airport by 5:30 am. We're probably not going to see midnight this year...LOL. More later.

12/15/08 Hmmm stock market down a bit today. Golf tomorrow. On Wednesday we will be flying home to visit the kids and grandkids for Christmas. I'm real excited about that. Also, I found this article from a USC professor analyzing the 2008 presidential campaign and why Obama won. It's a bit simplistic but pretty good. Here's the link: Campaign Strategy: Why Obama Won and McCain Lost

12/11/08 I was looking this morning for a transcript of the original Frost/Nixon interview but wasn't able to find one. I was wondering how accurate the current Frost/Nixon movie was. If it was pretty accurate I would like to see it. I did find that the author of the stage play said that it was a play not a docudrama. Since the movie is based on the stage play, my guess is that the movie does not really represent the actual interview. Rather it is a fictionalize account of the events surrounding the interviews. I did see that the original interview is available on DVD, while I would rather have an unedited transcript (as those are more accurate) perhaps I can find the DVD of the interview. In trying to find out the facts about this movie, I was reminded of the play "Inherit the Wind" which culminated with the destruction of William Jennings Bryan (in the play Mathew Harrison Brady) in his testimony on the Bible where it shows him a broken man reciting the books of the bible. Most of that play is an outright fabrication. This link shows the actual transcript of the testimony Bryan gave, it's quite interesting: Bryan vs. Darrow in the Scopes Trial

On a side note, it's raining here today so I'm stuck inside.

12/8/08 Here is a good article on the difficulties of coordinating changes during the presidential transition period.

Transition and the Economic Stimulus -- WSJ

 12/6/08   I’ve seen many changes in the last 60+ years. Here are a few of note:

1. The advances in electronics and miniaturization are amazing. If you read the science fiction books of the 50’s and 60’s they would talk about space travel and flying cars but never about PC’s or Cell Phones.
2. When I was a 7-8 years old we could walk to the movie by ourselves and see a movie that our folks didn’t have to worry about us seeing.
3. People are so used to things being safe that they have lost their sense of caution.

Ok, enough of that…It’s a beautiful day here in Sebring FL so I think I’ll take a walk. More rants, opinions, and general commentary later. Go Colts!!!

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