splat's Blog

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You can see where Santa is at this moment.  The kids will enjoy this.  There are little video icons to show the kids where Santa has been flying and shows Christmas presents of his current locations.  It's pretty neat!

 

http://www.noradsanta.org/

 

 

Merry Christmas!

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wa sn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold a nd the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"  So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, eithe r standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

 

 

This guy is amazing!  If you missed it last night you have to at least watch Robert.

I like the music too!

Please watch the whole clip as there is more fun at the end.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VNO4m7qip0

Dave are you saying hello to your wife when you twist your wedding ring during your weather reports?  Is it your way of letting her know you are ok and you love her?

Does anyone else notice this or am I the only one? 

If it is a sign to your wife keep it up.  It's a nice way to let her know you're thinking about her.

After reading the blog from Isis about Southwest Airlines and their new rules I just remembered a discussion my ex and I had about our children flying back and forth for visits.

 

I believe Southwest and other airlines will allow children 7 and older to fly by themselves.

As a parent I feel 7 is too young. I still am not comfortable with a 10 year old flying alone.  I would not allow my child(ren) to fly alone at that age.

My ex doesn't feel that is too young.  He thinks the child will be protected from point A to point B and make it just fine.

 

What if there was turbulence?  Is a flight attendant going to be right next to the child to comfort them?  I doubt it.  

What if there's engine trouble and they have to stop elsewhere with a long delay?  Will the flight attendant be there the whole time to comfort the child? Probably not.   

 What if the child is seated next to some strange adult who makes the child uncomfortable but the child is too scared to speak up?  I wouldn't want my 7 yo sitting next to some strange man I don't know. 

I guess I'd like to know at what age would you let your child fly alone?  Do you think the age limit is too low?

Where  did our Lizzie go?

 

I know I want her to come back as I'm sure many of you do.  I love her comments and posts and hate to see her go.

Nonnerdeen, I passed on your post with your email addy to her.

We need our Lizzie back!!!!

This is in response to M. Swick.

You do not have your comments turned on so I am posting a new blog to you.

You do not have to pay to look for sex offenders.  It's very simple.  You can go to State of Arizona, Department of Public Safety.  

The link is :

https://az.gov/webapp/offender/main.do

 p>

If you are looking for an offender in a different state you can google sex offender registry for that state.

 

Hoping this info helps!   

I've never been to a Diamondbacks game.  I've been to a few spring training games and those were fun but my kids are older now and I thought it would be fun to take them to a game. ( We used to go to minor league games in California and they loved it so I thought it was time for them to move up to the "Big" leagues.)

I get on line to see what the ticket prices are and what games were available.  I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the prices.  Are you kidding me? For decent seats it would cost over $100!  

The only way they will be going to a game is if tickets magically appear out of the sky and I know that isn't happening.

Does anyone else feel this way about the ticket prices or am I just naive and out of the loop? 

Per Snopes this is true!

 

Virginia Rogers Secretary,
South Plains College Vocational Nursing Department

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas , Texas is a fairly famous institution and for a variety of reasons:

1. John F. Kennedy died there in 1963
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after
3. Jack Ruby-who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, died there a few years later..by coincidence

"On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That's almost 44 per day---every day)

A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants.That's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.

The average patient in Parkland 's maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal immigrant. By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay.

OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday, middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital , they do.

" Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics NINE.

The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two were also born at Parkland . Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in Mexico . This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away. (I wonder why they even bother asking at this point.)

"How long has this been going on? What are the long-term affects?

Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after her mother entered the U.S. Illegally---now she is having her own child there as well. (That's right, she's technically a U.S. Citizen.) These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula.

Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.

Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification---no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income---an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.

"My husband is a pilot for the United States Navy (yes, he fought in Iraq ) and while the health care is good, we Navy wives don't get any of these perks! Car seats? Diapers? Not so much. So my question is this: Does our public medical care system treat illegal immigrants better than American citizens? Yes it does!

As I mentioned, the care I have received is perfectly adequate but it's bare bones, meat and potato medical care---not top of line.

Their (the illegals) medical care is free---simply because they are illegal immigrants? Once again, there is no way to verify their income.

Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so easy for Americans.)

There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County So the hospital is going to sue them! Illegals get it all free! But U.S citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?

As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her.

In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.

In the meantime, I have to end my column here. I have to go buy a car seat."

(Ed: Sorry for the length, but this needs wide circulation----particularly to our "employees" in Congress.) 

If you want to verify accuracy:   http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/parkland.as
p

In the FAQ's on the message boards Kim_S posted this:

 

Posted: Jun/04/2007 12:19 PM     (report inappropriate content)  

We've received some emails and calls from viewers saying that they find myfoxphoenix.com difficult to navigate. Your feedback means a lot to us and a new version of the site is coming! Stay tuned...

 

I have not had any problems with the site, the message boards or blogs but then again I have worked on other forums/boards that are much bigger and a lot more difficult to navigate if you are new to this.

I can think of ways to make it easier for new people as I know on the other forums I am a member of I have to get in IM and walk people through the navigation process but I find myfoxphoenix a piece of cake compared to the others.

 

Is anyone else having problems?  Did you have problems when you first joined?

Has anyone ever gone to those little shops where you pick out a piece of pottery, paint it then come back in a few days to pick up your finished product?

 

I think it sounds like a fun thing to do and a good way to get out of the heat but I hear it can get a bit pricey.

If you do recommend it do you know of a place that won't cost an arm and a leg?   I'm not very creative but would like to try it just to see if I would enjoy doing it again.

Ok, you've heard of this family from Tucson being abducted from a local mall by 4 hispanic men.  They were then taken to a house.  When the alarm went off in the house they all fled.

Something about this story sounds sketchy to me.

Why did it take several hours for the alarm to go off in the house?  Did someone set it off?
Where is the owner of the house and why are the Police unable to reach him?

I can't put my finger on it but something about this story just doesn't seem right.

My first thought was the family was in on the kidnapping and they were setting up the family friend to get the money from them.  I don't know.  It just doesn't add up to me.  I hope I'm wrong.

What do you all think?  

* In the country legally

*Have the means to sustain themselves economically

*Not destined to be burdens on society

*Of economic and social benefit to society

*Of good character and have no criminal records;and contributors to the general well-being of the nation

Also:

*Immigration authorities have a record of each foreign visitor;

*foreign visitors do not violate their visa status;

*foreign visitors are banned from interfering with the countries internal politics;

* foreign visitors who enter under false pretenses are imprisoned or deported;

* foreign visitors violating the terms of their entry are imprisoned or deported;

* those who aid in illegal immigration will be sent to prison.

 

These are MEXICO'S immigration laws.  Maybe we should start following their laws. 

 

 

 

I received this via email this morning.  I found it funny and true.

 

OLD VERSION:

 

 The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, going back and forth, never resting, building his house and laying up supplies

for the winter.

 

 The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool.  He laughs and dances, and every day, he plays away the summer, not one bit concerned about his

future.

 

 Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.  The grasshopper has

no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

 

 MORAL OF THE STORY:   Be responsible for yourself!  ---------------------------------

 MODERN VERSION:

 

 The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, going back and forth, never resting, building his house and laying up supplies

for the winter.

 

 The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool.  He laughs and dances, and every day, he plays away the summer, not one bit concerned about his

future.

 

 Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference, and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well

fed while others are cold and starving.

 

 CBS,  NBC,  PBS,  CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.  America is stunned by the sharp

contrast.

 

 How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?  Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy

Being Green."

 

 The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton stage a demonstration in front of the ant's house, where the news stations film the group singing, "We Shall Overcome."  Jesse then has the group kneel

down to pray to God for the grasshopper.

 

 Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper.  They both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay into a

fund created to provide for grasshoppers who fail to plan and work hard.

 

 Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.  The ant is fined for failing to share his good fortune made possible by his hard work. Having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home isconfiscated by the government.

 

 Hillary gets her former employer, the Rose Law Firm, to represent the grasshopper in a defamation law suit against the ant.  The case is tried before a jury comprised of single-parent grasshopperwelfare recipients. 

 The ant loses the case.

 The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food.  The government-provided house he is in, which was the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintainit.

 

 Penniless, the ant has disappeared in the snow.  The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now in shambles and abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders, who terrorize theonce peaceful neighborhood.

 

 MORAL OF THE STORY:   Be careful how you vote!

Last night I was watching the 10pm newscast.  The story came on about the 3 year old boy who fell in the pool and the men working on the roof of a house saw what happened and saved the boy from drowning.

 

So, the reporter gets it right.  They were in the right place at the right time.  They were supposed to be on that roof doing the repairs and happened upon a drowning boy.

 

I have heard that phrase screwed up so many times and a lot of times by reporters.

So, this is how I learned the correct phrase.

You are walking down the middle of the street and do not get hit by a car.  You were in the wrong place at the right time.  

You are walking down the middle of the street and get hit by a car.  You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

You are walking down a sidewalk and a car drives up the curb and hits you.  You were in the right place at the wrong time. 

You are walking down a sidewalk and nothing happens.  You were in the right place at the right time. 

 

Yeah, I know, there are better things to worry about but it just rubs me the wrong way when I hear it incorrectly used.

Now, make sure you always walk on the sidewalk and look out for oncoming cars!