Let's hear how all those requests for reassessments turned out. Mine was turned down before the upcoming appeal. Keep the faith.

In 1864, Lincoln wrote the following letter to his friend William Elkins:

"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood...It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxious for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless"

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging

Could not help but notice that Goodwill Industries has decided to move to Fayetteville instead of Peachtree City. Do not get me wrong. I am not an opponent to Goodwill Industries and what they propose to create in Fayetteville. I think that it is probably something good for the county in the long run.

Absent from most discussion concerning the upcoming Presidential election is the likelihood of two vacancies on the Supreme Court during the next four years. This is truly “the elephant in the room” when we consider what those appointments could mean to the citizens of this country.

Anyone up for a bloggers coffee this Saturday, time and place TBD? This is open to all bloggers (and lurkers) who might want to participate in (or spy on) interesting conversation, friendly banter and the ubiquitous "cup o' joe".

My wife and I took off last week for Hilton Head Island for a vacation (for her) and a few rounds of golf (for me). I had no way of knowing before hand that these past two weeks would be such fertile ground for insightful (hopefully) commentary.

My wife asked me a question this morning that I could not answer, and, bein's as how there are plenty of pilots here, I thought I would ask it here. Understand that I am not asking this to start yet ANOTHER pilot bashing session, but merely to try to understand the situation better.

The reality of the American political system is that, today, a voter has the choice of voting either Republican or Democrat. It would, conceivably, be nice to have a number of valid choices from which to choose when voting. As much as Bob Barr might like it to be so, our next President will either be a Republican or a Democrat.

Obama Interview in Atlantic

I got to thinking about how the Progressive/Populist wing of the Democratic Party has been struggling lately. I guess, in many ways, being a conservative is so much easier. There isn’t any of that pesky doubt about doing the right thing. Once you blur the line between right and wrong, it is pretty much anything goes. Don’t listen to polls, don’t read anything that contradicts your perceived notions. Stay the course.

Okay, so I am going to visit this topic yet again, but from a different angle.

We got to talking in Sunday School this morning about being black and being white in today's society. Actually, we got to talking about perceptions. The questions arose about the perception of good and evil and the colors identified with them. Since things bad are represented by black and things good are represented by white, what does this do to black people? How do they perceive themselves in terms of good and evil?

To be a Republican you need to believe:

1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

It struck me this morning that I had some very serious questions about the Vice-President's tenure. I am worried that there is another point of view about all this and look for answers but have been pretty unsuccessful at getting answers I could follow logically. So I thought that I would throw these questions out there for discussion, hoping that the faithful out there can help me solve this.

I know that some of you may think that this is VERY out of character, but I just listened to Irma Thomas's "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" and was blown away.

The time has come when we have to decide whether we are going to live in the past or turn our eyes to the future. All too often, it is easy for us to slip into the mode of "Whose fault is all this anyway?" Mr. Bush's War, Clinton's indiscretions, the Banking/Mortgage Crisis, Rev. Wright's influence. All these things have taken place in the past, all of which do, indeed, have an influence on what we do now and in the future.

I read Cal's post this week with interest. It is not secret that there has been a slow swell of disillusionment in Fayette County recently with the prevailing leadership. From Mayor Logsdon, to Ronnie Chance, and the list goes on. It seems like the perfect time to write out a few thoughts concerning the two-party system and its meaning to our local government. Understand that I am but one voice in a movement that is quietly growing across the country.

With all the hoopla right now about the schools here in Fayette County and, of course, our neighboring county, I got to thinking about school governance and, what some of you call, our "government schools" system. It is really taking a beating these days and our representatives don't seem to be too concerned about that fact. Oh, we get alot of lip service, around election time, but we keep electing the same old guys to drive up to Atlanta, and represent the interests that are driving the educational systems downward.

I must apologize at the start for the somewhat rambling nature of this blog. I will eventually get to the point, but have to set the context first.

gratefuldoc, "Hack", hutch et al. Cyclist thought it might be nice for us to have a coffee on Friday noon at the usual Starbucks.

I got this article from a friend of mine and thought it would be good to post it here...in the spirit of fairness. Keep the faith.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the human mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at

In this morning's AJC there is a note that the Georgia House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee yesterday passed the bill requiring a 1000-foot buffer between the residencies of convicted sex-offenders and children's centers {HB-1059}.

Thanks to Bob Dylan, for immortalizing those words. Of course, the times seem to ALWAYS be a’changin’, which is a statement about the pace of cultural change.