12 again

John took the How Old Do You Act? quiz and got the result: 12.

I took the "How Old Do You Act?" test on Facebook and this is how I scored.

I can't decide if this is better or worse than 64...

Ark of the Covenant to be revealed?

From WorldNetDaily:

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world's most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, "Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries."
The announcement is expected to be made at 2 p.m. Italian time from the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome. Pauolos will reportedly be accompanied by Prince Aklile Berhan Makonnen Haile Sellassie and Duke Amedeo D'Acosta.

Abuna Pauolos, patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia

"The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries," said Pauolos. "As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now."

Want to know more about the ancient box holding the Ten Commandments? Get "Exploring the Ark of the Covenant" – a two-DVD set!
According to Pauolos, the actual Ark has been kept in one church, but to defend the treasure, a copy was placed in every single church in Ethiopia.

He said a museum is being built in Axum, Ethiopia, where the Ark will be displayed. A foundation of D'Acosta will fund the project.
The Ark of the Covenant is the sacred container of the Ten Commandments as well as Aaron's rod and a sample of manna, the mysterious food that kept the Israelites alive while wandering in the wilderness during their journey to the promised land.
The Bible says the Ark was built to the specifications of God as He spoke to Moses. It was carried in advance of the people and their army by priests. It was also carried in a seven-day procession around the walled city of Jericho.

Sketch of Ark of the Covenant based on a description by the late explorer Ron Wyatt (wyattmuseum.com)

The idea that the Ark is presently in Ethiopia is a well-documented, albeit disputed, tradition dating back to at least 642 B.C. The tradition says it was moved to Elephantine Island in Egypt, then to Tana Kirkos Island in Ethiopia and finally to its present site at St. Mary's of Zion Church in Axum.
Ethiopians believe it is destined to be delivered to the Messiah when He reigns on Mount Zion – the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 3:16 points to a time when the Ark will vanish not only physically, but from the minds of the people: "And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more."
The Book of Revelation says the Ark is in the temple of God in heaven (Rev. 11:19). Muslim scholars say it will be found near the end of times by the Mahdi – a messianic figure in Islam.

And while we’re on the subject…

The stupidest thing I’ve seen this month:

Motorcyclist westbound about 45 mph on Johnson Avenue in Jonesboro at 5:11 p.m. yesterday.

No helmet (blue baseball cap on backwards)

No shirt

Holding a cell phone to his left ear.

Cheep

Sign on the post office bulletin board.

Las Vegas weather report

Can’t top that.

North Korea threatens to wipe us off the map

Oh, really?

Bring it, twerp.

One more thing off of my plate

I wrapped up my magazine photo shoot about 12:30, had a quick lunch with Maria and went home where I burned the images to a DVD. Then it was back to town where I fired the DVD and associated paperwork off to Fargo, N.D.

I was chagrined to discovered when I looked at the images on my 24” monitor that I had dust on my camera sensor. Nothing the PhotoShop healing tool can’t handle, but I’m embarrassed nonetheless.

Time to invest in some serious sensor cleaning tools.

Or a D300 with self-cleaning sensor.

We’re scheduled to close on our mortgage refinance next Monday. I’m still waiting to hear whether they expect me to make the July payment at the old rate. Seems wrong to do a new deal on June 29 and then have to make a July payment under the old deal.

But, given our bank’s communication skills, the only way I’ll find out is to take the initiative to ask.

On assignment

Shooting a house for a magazine this morning.

Wrecking the economy for a bogus climate theory

Click on the map to view it larger.
Waxman-Markey would be a very stupid bill even if it were true that 1) the earth is getting warmer, 2) human activity is mostly responsible for climate changes, and 3) a warmer earth would be a bad thing. Given that all three of these premises are false--we cannot, in fact, control the weather--Waxman-Markey is a suicidal monument to human folly.

Old and new

Longtime friend Lonnie Miller forwarded this cool photo of windmills - old and new - at the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in northwest Indiana.

I took the liberty of cropping the original photo for a more dramatic effect. Jerry Gibson of Lafayette shot the original with a cell phone camera.

High Anxiety

This scene from “High Anxiety” is, to my way of thinking, one of the all-time funniest moments in the history of cinema.

I’ve got a copy of the movie and I’ve seen it dozens of times, but I always laugh hysterically at this scene.

If you’ve never seen this classic, go rent it.

Immediately.

Just in time for the Dog Days of Summer

Maria has long lamented the fact that we don't have a dog door that would let our dogs to and fro between the screened back porch and the yard.

Austin solved the problem last week with a birthday gift to his mom of a new screen door that has a separate pet door.

Rather than risk the distress involved in struggling with the installation in 90-degree heat, I paid the additional $65 to have Lowe's send out an installer.

He arrived as expected about 10 a.m. today and had the job all wrapped up within an hour. I'm confident that Austin and I would have taken three or four hours and ended up with a job that wouldn't look nearly as professional.

The next step was to train the dogs to use the flap with magnets on the bottom.

Both dogs are crazy about cream cheese, so we used it to lure them  back and forth through the opening.

Ruthie was the first to catch on and now goes through with little or no coaxing. Pete, always the wary and cautious pup, has yet to make the passage on his own, but can be persuaded to step through the opening if you lift the flap a bit and invite him through.

Given time, I expect it will become second nature to both of them. In the meantime, I've ShopVaced what I hope are the last of the flies and mosquitoes and made the porch considerably more inviting for human habitation.

Just for the record, it's 96 degrees with a heat index of 100 at 4 p.m.

Here's looking at you, kid

I'm back from the eye doc's office, my pupils dilated in the blazing sunshine.

Fortunately, they have little disposable sunglass inserts for glasses, which made the drive home marginally bearable.

Now that I'm home and working on the laptop, I'm still working with fuzzy vision because dilated pupils give you very little depth of field. Stuff is either in focus or it isn't.

The report is reasonably good - no signs of diabetic damage and the early cataracts that were diagnosed three years ago are still well below the threshold of needing attention.

Unfortunately, I had a chocolate chip FiberOne breakfast bar before I went in for my appointment this morning, which ran my blood sugar up to 230 - a level the doc deemed too high to get an accurate measure of my vision for the purposes of writing a prescription for new glasses or contact lenses.

So I have to get it down to a reasonable level before I go back for a re-test.

So much for getting new contacts in time for my ride to the BMW MOA rally.

Later yesterday

But it’s a WET heat

We’re hanging out at Books-A-Million after a run to the southside Walmart to pick up a prescription.

The Subaru’s exterior thermometer has settled on 98 degrees after flickering between 100 and 101 en route to Walmart.

Summer began here at 12:45 a.m. today.

Father’s Day thoughts

Today is Father’s Day, so here’s a photo of me and my dad at Niagara Falls, circa 1957. I was 12 and dad was 47.

This is probably the coolest my dad ever looked, at least I can’t find a better photo: slim and trim, pleated slacks, stylish belt and Pendleton shirt, natty tweed jacket, cap and shades. And he’s smoking a cigarette – almost certainly a Winston.

I, on the other hand, was going through that horrible awkward geeky phase that pre-teen boys often have to endure. I think I still have the black-and-gold cap with the D for Delphi.

The waist-level camera point of view tells me my mother shot it with her twin-lens reflex Kodak. A lot of the classic Depression Era photos by Dorothea Lange and the other greats of that time were shot from that POV with more sophisticated twin-lens reflexes and they have a quality I think is often more interesting than what you get with eye-level view finders.

But I digress.

This my 12th fatherless Father’s Day. I miss him every day.

On the other hand, this is my 41st year as a father and my eighth year as a step-father.
We got our dates crossed up and initially thought last Sunday was Father's Day. Consequently, my stepson Austin dazzled me last Sunday morning when he returned from his morning run in Craighead Forest Park with a Father’s Day gift for me – a Blu-ray copy of Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino.” What a good kid.
Today is also the first day of summer. As I write this, the heat index is somewhere above 100 degrees. The weather here is definitely in synch with the calendar.

Rally countdown

It’s on.

I pre-registered online this afternoon for the 2009 BMW Motorcycle Owners of America International Rally next month at Johnson City, Tenn.

I also posted to the BMWMOA online forum the observation that the rider in the rally logo really ought to have his head tilted and his eyes level with the horizon. Otherwise, it looks kinda unnatural. I’m sure my constructive criticism will be warmly received.

The Face of the Revolution

If this still photograph taken from the video goes viral, this unfortunate young woman has just become the face of the revolution. As a galvanizing force, this photo is the most important image to come out of Iran.

Please feel free to copy and use it wherever and whenever possible.

From the Facebook page of Hamed Rad, a physician in Tehran:

Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran's Saturday June 20th protests
At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.
A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.
The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.
The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.
Please let the world know.

 

Here's the link to the Facebook page and the extremely graphic video.

Attention: Twitter and Facebook users

Change your location to Tehran and help confuse the Iranian authorities trying to track down Iranian Freedom Fighters on Twitter and Facebook.

It's one small thing we can do to help these people.

These kids need guns

Let’s pray that they succeed

Your move

It’s Saturday morning and the chess players are doing battle in the cafe at Books-A-Million.

I’m surfing and blogging while Maria shops next door at Kroger. Earlier, we stopped at the Farmers Market for some blackberries and tomatoes and to give a CD of last Saturday’s Maggie dog pictures to the Whitton Farms kids.

It’s not 11 a.m. yet and the temperature is 90 with a heat index of 96, so we’re in for another warm, horribly humid day.

We stopped at the post office on the way into Jonesboro and I noticed a guy getting into his pickup truck with a license plate on the front displaying the sentiment: “I (heart) my wife.”

I suppressed the urge to ask him if his wife put it there.

Steve Jobs lives in Memphis?

It appears Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a neighbor of ours.

Well, almost and maybe.

It was reported this week that Jobs underwent a liver transplant "in Tennessee" two months ago.

People who are checking into the story think he's been living near medical facilities in Memphis.

Here is Alexander Haislip's report.

Friday morning report

I noticed my cell phone battery was almost flat as I left home this morning, so that meant I’d go to Barnes & Noble.

Huh?

Barnes & Noble does not have free Wifi, but they do have convenient electrical outlets, which means I can use my Sprint cell phone for a modem and in doing so, let it charge through my Mini 9 being plugged into AC.

The wallpaper on my Mini 9, BTW, is a photo I shot about 6 years ago at Arches National Park. They call that part of the park Park Avenue because of the rock formations’ resemblance to a New York City skyline.

I’ve been recruited to shoot a local home next week for a home design/furnishings magazine. This month’s issue is emphasizing kitchens, but the home selected is in the middle of a kitchen faucet/tile backsplash project, so I’ve been instructed to work around the sink problems. And the shoot is scheduled the day after the stated deadline. Strikes me as a very odd choice, but I’m just getting paid to do the shoot and fire the images off by FedEx to the publisher asap. Whatever.

One of the sunflower seeds from our back yard birdfeeder has taken root and the flower opened up yesterday morning. It was even fuller this morning, so I set my Olympus point-and-shoot for macro and captured its sunny radiance before I left home for town.

It was 82 degrees and impossibly humid at the time and my glasses and camera immediately fogged up, having just come from a dry, air conditioned house.

(The air conditioning at Barnes & Noble is about to freeze me out. I don’t much care for their musical choices, either.)

Austin’s birthday present for his mother arrived yesterday afternoon in a big Lowe’s box truck – a replacement for our present screened patio door with a dog door in the bottom panel. Maria has wanted one of these since we moved in nearly two years ago.

We’ve kept the original screen door propped open so the dogs can to and fro at will. But the consequence is that mosquitoes, wasps, flies, birds, raccoons and God knows what else can also find their way onto the porch. If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ll remember the ShopVac Mosquito War of 2008. The dog door should make those daily mosquito massacres unnecessary.

Deadbeat report

The couple who used to have our phone number and who left a trail of ripped-off creditors all over the landscape, have filed for bankruptcy.

As a result of the filing, we now have a current address for them that we can pass on to the creditors who continue to call our number, so maybe, just maybe, we can put an end to these calls.

Nordex, wo bist du?

As far as I can tell, work has not yet begun on the planned Nordex USA North American manufacturing facility here in Jonesboro.

The most recent reference to it on the Nordex web site is in a press release in early March announcing the opening for the German wind turbine manufacturer’s new North American headquarters in Chicago.

You have to read nearly to the end of the press release to find this reference to the Jonesboro plans:

In October of 2008, Nordex announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The company will invest approximately $100 million in the factory, which will employ more than 700 people in Arkansas and around100 people in Chicago by 2015. It will manufacture every component of a wind turbine except the tower, with a target annual assembly capacity of 750 megawatts. Construction is slated to begin this year, with production planned for 2010.

“Establishing a firm operating and manufacturing presence will enable Nordex to keep better pace with strong demand in the US, which has outstripped our ability to import turbines manufactured abroad fast enough,” said Sigrist. “From Chicago we will be in the capital of the wind industry, and from Jonesboro we will be at a geographic center for product distribution.” Nordex is also gearing up to build a home-grown supply chain in the US.

Has the drop in oil prices since October 2008 sucked the wind out of the wind turbine business? What has to happen to get this project moving?

And do you remember that insensitive question the TV reporter asked the despondent manager of the soon-to-close Circuit City here?

“Well, do you think we’ll get a Best Buy?”

It could happen, even though we’re not on the list of new Best Buy stores recently released.

They want freedom. We give them Chickenshit Diplomacy.

The Iranian government is accusing us of meddling, despite Obama’s steadfast refusal to stand up for freedom and democracy because he doesn’t want to be accused of meddling.

WTF?

These people are prepared to die for freedom and the Great Apologizer, the Apostle of Change and Hope, can’t offer them a shred of hope.

Is this the Smart Diplomacy we were promised? Looks more like Chickenshit Diplomacy to anyone who’s paying attention (that is just about everyone but Juan Williams).

As Charles Krauthammer pointed out earlier this week, an overthrow of the jihadist looneytune theocracy is the only scenario that eliminates the need for us or Israel to get medieval on a country that ought to be our friends.

How old is your dog?

I found an interesting (to me, anyway) web site this morning that computes the age of your dog in human equivalent years based on a lengthy set of questions.

According to the DogAge Test site, Ruthie – who is 11 years old this week, is 44 in human years. Pete the Aussie, who is 3.5, is 11 in human years.

Using the old standard formula of 1:7, Ruthie would be 77 and Pete would be 24.5.

If you have a dog, or know a dog, or are a dog, check it out.

It’s starting again…

I was going to mow the lawn today.

The grass is still relatively short, but there are foot-high weeds all over the place.

I shuffled through the grass coming back from getting the newspaper out of the tube at the end of the driveway this morning and noted my shoes were wet with dew. I decided to let the dew dry before attacking the lawn with the mower.

The next thing I knew, the stifling heat was upon us. As I write this in late afternoon, the temperature is still 95 and the heat index is 106, down a degree from an hour ago.

Even with the luxury of a riding mower, I’m not remotely interested in sweating a couple of gallons just to have a tidy lawn. I noticed my neighbors are exercising good judgment in that regard as well.

Maybe tomorrow…

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha launched a few weeks ago and even after listening to Leo Laporte interview creator Stephen Wolfram for a half-hour, I still don’t have a feel for what the hell it isl

It’s not a search engine and half the queries I give it get bounced back as not understood. It does, however, tell me the significant statistical differences between Indiana and Arkansas and where the International Space Station is at any particular time.

Go play with it at wolframalpha.com.

Indianapolis artist still faces charges, but the "victims" love his work

RALEIGH, N.C. - When Joseph Carnevale chopped up three stolen orange and white traffic barrels from a construction site to create a massive sculpture of a roadside monster thumbing a ride, the N.C. State University student saw it as a form of street art.

Raleigh police saw vandalism.

They dismantled the 10-foot "barrel monster" and arrested Indianapolis native Carnevale. But hundreds of online supporters want the charges dropped, and the publicity has turned the history major and part-time construction worker into a local celebrity.

Even the construction company has become a fan and wants the 21-year-old to create a replica of the figure that led to his arrest on June 10.

"It's surprising how many people have called attention to it," Carnevale said.

The college junior hadn't spent much time planning when he set out the night of May 31 and snatched the barrels from the site near the N.C. State campus.

"I had the idea in class that morning, and it kind of grew in my head, until it was something I had to do," he said. He went back to his Raleigh apartment and in an hour and a half returned to the site to assemble the freshly painted pieces before driving away.

What emerged was a hulking figure that seemed to extend a thumb, seeking a ride from passing cars. The next morning Raleigh police dismantled the creation and took the pieces in for evidence while they searched for the perpetrator.

Although photos quickly spread on the Internet featuring the "barrel monster," it was an N.C. State newspaper article that offered enough clues to lead police to a Web site that identified Carnevale. Police charged him with larceny and destruction of property, both misdemeanors, and he's scheduled to appear in court next month.

Carnevale himself on his street art, but said he's most interested in guerrilla photography -- making art and snapping images from restricted locations.

"If you can break the rules, and no one knows they were broken in the first place, then there's no point," he said.

His apartment walls serve as a canvas, covered in various hues of paint, with images on the walls and doors of sharks, hollow skulls and even Gandhi. His 1997 Volkswagen Jetta is almost completely covered in hot-glued beer bottle caps.

Carnevale has made other street art pieces with stolen barrels, including an alligator and caricatures with small arms.

Hamlin Associates, the construction company whose barrels were turned into a monster, doesn't want to press charges.

"We've had a fair amount of vandalism, but never anyone turn it into art," Steven Hussey, the company's president, said. "I actually thought it was pretty neat."

Hussey said the value of the publicity his company has received is well above the $365 cost of the traffic barrels that Carnevale used.

"It's been positive publicity for us," he said. "If we'd known he'd do that good of a work, we'd have given him the barrels."

Carnevale said he's weighing Hussey's offer to reconstruct the monster for the company's offices, possibly for pay. Meanwhile, at least three Facebook support groups have formed to support Carnevale, including "Don't Charge Joseph Carnevale," boasting more than 800 members.

Raleigh police spokeswoman Laura Hourigan said the charges wouldn't be dropped, despite the company's stance.

"The police department obviously has a job to do," she said. "And if someone is going to destroy property, we're going to take care of that situation."

Hourigan said police are speaking with the district attorney's office to investigate other street art by Carnevale, though she would not discuss details. Hourigan said Carnevale's Web site displayed photos of destroyed property.

Their grandfathers who died on the Eastern Front must be spinning in their graves

From The Times of London:

They have a beer ration of up to a liter a day, and wurst for dinner. Taliban or no Taliban, Germans take a little bit of home with them when they serve in trouble spots. Even their carefully sorted rubbish gets dumped in wheelie bins before being sent from Afghanistan to Germany for recycling.

Now Germany’s most senior officer has berated his troops for going soft. “We cannot guarantee soldiers that they w ill have an all-round feel-good experience,” said General Wolfgang Schneiderhan.

His outburst follows complaints made by German soldiers to the official ombudsman about their tours abroad. Some have grumbled about unsuitable sleeping bags for their Congo peace-keeping mission. “There is no reason why this issue should have come before Parliament,” said General Schneiderhan — while others moaned about the long hours, a lack of childcare for their families at home and poor medical care.

Army doctors say that they are on the brink of leaving because pay and conditions are so bad. So many have returned to civilian life that there is a shortage of medics in the field.

“Perhaps the problem is down to the general tendency in society to delegate responsibility to someone else, or perhaps it is the stress associated with change,” he told several hundred army officers and politicians at an official reception.

In 2007 German forces in Afghanistan consumed about 90,000 bottles of wine in addition to 1.7 million pints of beer; that figure has stayed constant. British and US bases by contrast have an alcohol ban.

Three months and I'm obsolete

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is no more. At least it's not being sold by Dell.

According to the Dell.com web site, the only minis are 10- and 12-inch models. And it was just three months ago that I bought my Mini 9.

No matter. I prefer a mini with an SSD (Solid State Drive) for the dust and vibration of motorcycle travel and the price ($250) was right.

Donderhund

It’s raining again, but the radar image suggests it won’t be nearly as heavy as the deluge we got last evening.

Pete the Aussie, as you may recall, is absolutely terrified of thunder and lightning and there was plenty of both yesterday.

He comes by it honestly. He was less than six months old when Morgan left him and Ruthie out on the back porch during a violent thunderstorm. Morgan was up in the attic, sorting through her stuff with the boombox blasting and was blissfully unaware of the storm.

It was no big deal for Ruthie, but Pete freaked out. People said they saw him streaking down the street, running blindly as the lightning flashed and the thunder crashed. He was gone for a couple of days. We finally caught up with him after a woman from the veterinarian’s office sighted him a couple of miles north of town.

A year later, he fled in terror when a neighbor’s bottle rocket exploded over his head on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. He was gone for three days that time.

Ever since then, he’s had an unnatural interest in the sky and spends a lot of his outdoors time gazing upward and barking at imagined threats. He senses approaching storms and hunkers down next to one of us when the thunder rumbles.

He attached himself to Austin last evening, lying at Austin’s feet in the kitchen as Austin emptied a clean dishwasher.

This is a portrait of a worried dog.

Mitch Daniels: The Anti-Obama?

My spirits are a bit lighter this morning because it appears my motorcycle riding friend Mitch Daniels is getting more and more recognition.

Here’s an editorial by Tracy Warner at the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that appeared in today’s paper:

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ rising profile on the national political stage has caused Hoosiers to wonder whether he is positioning himself for a run for higher office, something the guv adamantly denies.

A clue to his real goal may have appeared in a Sunday New York Times commentary by political writer John Hardwood about whether the GOP should continue to hold up Ronald Reagan as the personification of its goals. In quoting Daniels, Harwood referred to him as “a Republican who lately has emerged as a potential national party leader.”

Daniels isn’t necessarily striving to be the chairman of the national GOP, and only the governor knows his true motivation.

But if Republicans have to choose Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh or Mitch Daniels as their national standard-bearer, Daniels can help the party most.

In Daniels, Republicans have a governor whose policies have placed an economically vulnerable Rust Belt state highly dependent on the auto industry in better fiscal position than almost every other state.

Much of his accomplishment comes from using tactics the party has long supported, namely privatization and diminishing the power of unions.

Indiana’s fiscal position gives Daniels credibility that so many other national Republicans lack, considering the party controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress while running up record debt.

At the same time he leads on fiscal conservatism, Daniels has avoided stepping into the rhetoric of social conservatism. He stayed in the background, for example, when Indiana lawmakers debated a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and a proposal to require doctors who perform abortions to have hospital privileges.

Daniels is an astute politician, and he realizes – just as Democrats like Evan Bayh and Bill Clinton understood – a strong message of fiscal restraint appeals to moderates from both parties, while strong positions on extremely divisive social issues turn off the political center. He also senses that the majority that elected President Obama is turned off by messages of hate and extremism – the messages Limbaugh and Gingrich preach daily.

With Obama spending enormous amounts of money on unprecedented bailouts of labor-intensive industries that may or may not work, fiscal conservatism is a  ripe issue for Republicans. Daniels has learned to appeal to both white-collar and blue-collar voters, and he can speak fiscal conservatism with authority and credibility.

Yes, he occasionally delivers red meat to the hard-right faithful, and yes, he occasionally has bursts of temper that belie that “aw, shucks” image he has worked so hard on. But having Daniels emerge as a leading national party authority would do much to improve the level of political discourse.

Tracy Warner, editorial page editor, has worked at The Journal Gazette since 1981. He can be reached at 461-8113 or by e-mail, twarner@jg.net.

Eyesore no more

When I was a kid growing up in Delphi, Ind., in the 1950s, the abandoned segment of the old Wabash & Erie Canal was a nasty, algae-covered eyesore out on North Washington Street.

Knowing little of its history, I supposed the people of the town would eventually get sick of it, drain it and fill it with dirt.

Instead, a group of citizens have transformed it into a tourist destination, complete with a

park, interpretive center and conference center.

Classmate Tina Tyner emailed me the news of the most recent development over the weekend - the launching of a replica canal boat.

Here are the announcement and the photos:

THE ORIGINAL "CANAL DREAM" BECOMES A REALITY

Finally the long awaited arrival of the replica canal boat has come.  Wednesday, June 3 saw the unloading (in the rain) and floating of the 54-foot-long, 10-foot-wide colorful boat and can carry 42 passengers and crew.  It was the dream of the early canal directors in the 1980s.

Inauguration of "the DELPHI" is Saturday, June 20 at 10 a.m. Free boat rides Saturday are in conjunction with Heritage Transportation Festival activities. The Wheelmen with their high wheel bikes and “bicycle built for two” next to the ice cream and nearby food vendors outside the historic 1844 Case House. 

Other events are found downtown where the Opera House and new art gallery will be open on Saturday. Then on Sunday (Father's Day) the festival moves to the Delphi Airport beginning with a "fly-in" breakfast.

Spring has been an especially busy time for the Canal volunteers.  Weather has caused delays in completing work on the canal banks and the construction of the Guard Lock. Now we are caught up with spring work and ready to celebrate -- HIP-HIP-HOORAY !!

Making sure they get it right

Rather than let it go with a phone call, Maria and I went to the bank this morning for face-to-face assurance that our locked-in in April refi interest rate will be extended when it lapses today.

We were pleasant but firm and established that we will not be charged for the paperwork associated with the extension since, of course, it’s not our fault that they let this business drag on for six weeks because a key person was out on maternity leave.

This is, after all, a business deal – not a transaction contingent upon some woman’s personal life.

I did make it clear that we were concerned and alarmed at the idea that the car would have gone off the cliff if I hadn’t checked in last Friday and alerted them to the impending doom of our refinance application.

I have to wonder how many other applicants lost their locked-in lower interest rates because of this alarmingly casual attitude about refinance applications.

We reckon this unnecessary delay cost us about $300 because we had to pay the old mortgage for an additional month.

Exploring the Ridge

We took Austin and the dogs for a ride this afternoon up Crowley's Ridge Parkway to Lake Frierson and Crowley's Ridge state parks.

Ruthie, who is a natural born water dog, really, really wanted to dive into the lake, so we let her get her feet wet.

It's pushing 90 degrees up here in our office and I'm starting to worry about the cumulative effects of daily heat exposure on our desktop computers.

Apparently the folks who built our house never envisioned human habitation up here in what they call a "bonus room" above the garage. The first owners never finished the space out and used it exclusively for storage.

However, we threw a fair amount of money at it during our first few months here in terms of woodwork, paint, ceiling treatment, a ceiling fan and, of course, our protracted efforts to get a good carpet installation from Lowe's.

The problem is that there is insufficient insulation in the roof above the room, which makes it chilly in the winter and impossibly hot in the warmest days of summer.

This, then, will be the summer when we get an insulation contractor up here to tell us if we can get any relief, short of sticking an unsightly window air conditioner in the rooms only window.

Iranian “election” protests

Is it too early to start talking about “Iranian Freedom Fighters?”

I hope not. Those kids want their freedom and their rock and roll and they may sense they have the power to make it happen. After all, half the population of Iran is under 30 and they don’t have much use for a bullshit theocracy.

Vandalism? Looks like an improvement to me.

Joseph Carnevale, 21, Raleigh, N.C. was arrested this week after Raleigh Police determined he was responsible for creating this piece of public artwork on May 31 on a road next to the North Carolina State University campus. He was charged with misdemeanor larceny for allegedly building his orange creature from construction zone barrels.

The charging information alleges he damaged contractor Hamlett Associates’s property to the tune of $360. He goes to court July 12.

I think they ought to pay him for making it impossible for drivers to ignore a construction zone and thus creating safer conditions for road workers and motorists.

Maggie’s farm

This is Maggie, a pit bull-mix pup who was relaxing under the Whitton Farms van at the farmers’ market this morning.

We’re out running errands and hanging out today. Maria is browsing quilting magazines and I’m drinking coffee and blogging at Books-A-Million before she goes next door to Kroger.

Free Stuff Friday

Today is Free Stuff Friday, an innovative promotion by The Jonesboro Sun and participating advertisers.

The paper was full of coupons and freebies and the paper partnered with First Security Bank to serve free hot dogs, chips and drinks at the bank’s Southwest Drive branch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Maria helped serve the dogs – they handed out about 700 of them.