New Stamp, HT to sister Cindy a sometime contributor to my inbox

The Postal Services created a stamp with a picture of President Obama on it. The Postal Service noticed that the stamp was not sticking to envelopes. This enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation. After a month of testing and $1.73 million in congressional spending, a special Presidential commission presented the following findings:



1.     The stamp is in perfect order.

2.     There is nothing wrong with the glue.

3.     People are spitting on the wrong side.

from today's editorial pages

Ronald Reagan's real achievement


Today marks the 100th anniversary of former American president Ronald Reagan's birth.


It's a time to remember Reagan and to celebrate his legacy.

And what a legacy.

Reagan helped turn a sour U.S. economy around, he helped win the Cold War, he assembled a winning political coalition, he restored American pride.

Many, in fact, consider him to be one of America's greatest all time presidents. (At least, conservatives view him that way.)

For me however, "The Gipper's" real success was not his economic policies or his foreign policy achievements.

For me it was how Reagan rebranded conservatism.

What do I mean?

Well before Reagan, conservatives were basically a dour lot.

And why not, everywhere they looked conservatism was losing ground.

Roosevelt's "New Deal" of the 1930s had ushered in the American welfare state, communism was on the march, taking over country after country, right-wing Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater got crushed in the 1964 election, the '60s Cultural Revolution was seemingly undermining America's morality and strength.

For conservatives, it was obvious -- the unstoppable trend toward "liberalism", was causing a slow, steady and inevitable American decline.

Hope was lost.

How could the U.S., with its "Age of Aquarius" generation ever hope to compete with the disciplined Soviets?

Pessimism reigned supreme.

Conservative thinkers were turning out books with uplifting titles like Suicide of the West.

Even those defying American liberalism did so defensively -- famed intellectual William F. Buckley, for instance, launched the conservative National Review saying the magazine would stand "athwart history, yelling stop."

Hardly a rallying cry.

By the 1970s things were only getting worse: the Watergate scandal, the military loss in Vietnam, Jimmy Carter spreading his own malaise in the White House.

Then at what seemed conservatism's darkest hour, came Reagan.

Reagan, the former Hollywood actor, the former Democrat, did things that were unusual for conservatives in those days.

He actually smiled! He used humour! He reached to Americans with a conservative message that was positive.

Rather than bemoaning America's "decline", Reagan made the case that America was still great.

America, he said, just had to remember that its greatness rested on freedom, including economic freedom.

If government was made smaller and less intrusive, he argued, it would free up the individual to create prosperity and growth. Government, in other words, wasn't part of the solution, it was part of the problem.

As Reagan himself put it, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

Suddenly, thanks to Reagan, conservatism went from being a philosophy for Captain Killjoys to a force for optimism.

Reagan's brand of conservatism didn't look back, it looked forward; it promised better things and a brighter future.

Not surprisingly, it was an outlook that resonated with the American people.

Not only did it propel Reagan to the White House, but it changed the dynamics of the American political scene.

Reagan put liberalism on the defensive.

But more importantly, his message inspired not only his American countrymen, but conservatives around the globe.

That's a lesson today's conservative leaders should remember.

Gerry Nicholls is a political consultant and writer.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Ronald+Reagan+real+achievement/4232402/story.html#ixzz1DBlDmVSD

I created a monster

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned that I was married when I came home to Alberta, but if I didn't, now you know.  No big, it happened 6 years ago and I'm sure that he's doing just as fine as I am.  Anyway, Ian (or the Former Husband-Unit) is BC bred and born (grapefruit-growing-kiwi-eating-tree-hugging variety that they are) and had rarely been to a rodeo, never mind to a chuckwagon race. 
The spring after we moved home I heard that there was a rodeo and 'wagon races in High River a few short miles down the road and threw it out there with "Do you want to go to the rodeo and wagon races this weekend?".  To which he responded "What's a wagon race?"  Oh my, a wagon virgin!
Wagon racing originated in the days of the very large ranch with no fences.  Every spring (some ranches did it in the fall as well) the ranches would send an 'outfit' to the agreed upon gather spot and set up camp.  After the hands had gathered the cattle in the vicinity and sorted out whose cattle were whose and branded the babies, it was on to the next rendezvous.  Well one thing led to another, and one cookie said to the other,"Beat you there!".  And so, there you have it, wagon racing is born.
Picture this, Gentle Reader, 4 chuckwagons hitched to 4 horses each.  Each wagon has 4 outriders associated with it for a total of 32 horses involved in each race.  There are 2 barrels for each team set up in the arena and each team lines up at their assigned barrel and waits for the horn to blow.  The driver is in the wagon of course, one outrider holding the lead team of his outfit, 2 holding simulated 'tent pegs' getting ready to throw them in the back of the wagon, and 1 holding a simulated 'camp stove' ready to throw it too in to the back of the wagon.  You have to keep in mind that all of the outriders are on the ground and holding their own horses while waiting for the horn to go. 
As soon as the horn goes, all hell breaks loose.  The driver slaps the reins across the rumps of his team, the outrider in the front gets the hell out of the way and tries to mount his own horse, who is by now trying to take off because all of the horses are off the flat track and once one goes, they all go; the 3 guys in the back have loaded their associated gear and are trying to mount their respective horses and once they do, they have to complete the figure 8 pattern that the wagon has already completed and head out to the track.  And now the race is on. Most often the guy who hits the track first is in the lead and the others are playing catch-up but it gets pretty exciting when they're battling for position down the backstretch and positioning changes.  By the time they hit the top of the turn for home sometimes they end up being 2 or 3 abreast coming down to the wire.  I've seen races where there are 3 across at the finish line and that's what would be called a Great Race.  Outfits are penalized for not completing the barrel pattern, for late outriders, or even for outriders finishing in front of the wagon.  In High River you get a whole lot closer to the action than you do in Calgary at the Stampede so you end up really hearing the thunder of hooves as they head for home and the clink of harness chains as they go by and the FHU was hooked.  I think we spent every weekend that summer 'chasing wagons'.  But what fun!

Now before you go all animal-rights activist on me, these horses are very well cared for and well loved by their owners.  They are purchased off the track where they spend up to 23 hours a day in a stall to go live in an enviroment where they spend a whole lot of time turned out with, you'll never guess, other horses.  Being the herd animals that they are, that's the best psychological environment for them.  I've seen places where an electric fence is set up in the middle of a field at an event and 8 to 10 horses are all turned out together, just hangin'.  When an accident happens, and they do, the owners and their families are just as saddened as we would be if our saddle horse was involved.  These people pay BIG BUCKS for their horses and look after them the same way that you and I would.  There was one horse that was retired last year at the age of 19, which is an admirable age for a horse that works as hard as a wagon horse does (and he was still very healthy and hardy and ready to work, they just figgered that he'd paid his dues).
In case my description fell short, I'll leave you with a video that does a good job of showing the action in the infield and one that shows a whole race (both, BTW, called by Joe Carbury who retired last year at the age of 79).

Has anyone else noticed..............

That Canada is the true mongrel (or should that be mangler?) of weights and measures?  The only thing that we're truly metric on is temperatures. 
We buy butter by the pound (only it's marked as 454 grams), coffee by the pound (907 grams), but milk by the liter.  Safeway advertises frozen chicken breasts at $2.99 a pound and then lulls the listener into thinking that's a smokin' deal because it comes in a 4 kilogram box.  $3X4=$12, right?  Nope, $3/lb X 4 kilos = $26 and change!
The  construction industry has got to be the absolute worst.  A 2x4 is still a 2x4 but conduit is still sold and measured by the foot (10' lengths, approximately 3 meters) and wire is sold by the meter.  In this one you truly have to be bi-measural! (and no, that is not bi-sexual!)

So

I've been given this:

and because I've been seeing them all over the blogosphere lately I'm thinking that I'm really late to this party.  Although there are rules attached, one of the first things I'm supposed to do is to acknowledge the awarder.  So a big thank you to BR over at A Tale Of Two Buckskins, a regular read, to think that I'm worthy.  I was going to decline, but I can't; I really am flattered.
First I need to share 7 things about myself.
1.  I'm still able to fit in to clothes that I was wearing in high school (tho' who would want to?)
2.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't had a leg over a horse for 6 years.
3.  I don't walk my dogs every day.
4.  Part Time is back.....
Gawd, this list is gettin' to be an extremely embarrassing list of shortcomings!
5.  When I was on the tools, I never asked for help, but if I saw someone struggling with something, I always offered a hand.
6.  Someone once told me that I'd be a hoot to party with, to which I replied "No, I'd be the guy in the corner, waiting for someone to come over and talk to me!"
7.  If someone had told me 5 years ago that I'd be living in the city, I would have told them that they'd been sniffing glue.
I'm also supposed to pass this award along to 15 other bloggers, but I seriously can't do 15.  I have enough trouble keeping up with the 9 that are currently on my reading list and most of them have this award already.
Ed Note: 06:45, 02/04/11
Any of my faithful 7 readers that would like to help themselves to this award, please go ahead and help yourself.  Just put up your link so I can see who you are!  :)

This one is absolutely unbelievable and sickening

Words cannot describe how shocked, saddened, and sickened I was when I heard about the sled dogs that were culled in Whistler, the owner stating it was due to the tourism downturn after the Olympics.  I seriously can't think of anything else to say about what has happened to these animals who give everything to their owners and ask nothing in return.  People on Face Book have been calling for vigilante action and the FB has pulled several posting already.
I'll let you read the rest on your own because words evade me.

Word of the day, HT to Dad, a regular contributor to my in box

                                                                       OMELETTE

                                                         Let's use it in a sentence:

     'I should pop yo ass fo what you jus did, but omelette dis one slide.'