Statue of Liberty

Photograph by Dean Conger

On July 4, 1884 France presented the United States with an incredible birthday gift: the Statue of Liberty! Without its pedestal it’s as tall as a 15-story building. She represents the United States. But the world-famous Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor was built in France. The statue was presented to the U.S., taken apart, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in crates, and rebuilt in the U.S. It was France’s gift to the American people.

It all started at dinner one night near Paris in 1865. A group of Frenchmen were discussing their dictator-like emperor and the democratic government of the U.S. They decided to build a monument to American freedom—and perhaps even strengthen French demands for democracy in their own country. At that dinner was the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (bar-TOLE-dee). He imagined a statue of a woman holding a torch burning with the light of freedom.

Turning Bartholdi’s idea into reality took 21 years. French supporters raised money to build the statue, and Americans paid for the pedestal it would stand on. Finally, in 1886, the statue was dedicated.

Fast Facts

* Engineer Gustave Eiffel, who would later design the Eiffel Tower in Paris, designed Liberty’s “spine.” Inside the statue four huge iron columns support a metal framework that holds the thin copper skin.
* Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi knew he wanted to build a giant copper goddess; he used his mother as the model.
* The statue—151 feet, 1 inch (46 meters, 2.5 centimeters) tall—was the tallest structure in the U.S. at that time.
* The arm holding the torch measures 46 feet (14 meters); the index finger, 8 feet (2.4 meters); the nose, nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters).
* The statue is covered in 300 sheets of coin-thin copper. They were hammered into different shapes and riveted together.
* The statue sways 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) in the wind; the torch sways 5 inches (12.7 centimeters).
* Visitors climb 354 steps (22 stories) to look out from 25 windows in the crown.
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* Seven rays in the crown represent the Earth’s seven seas.

Il Divo

Love Simon Cowell or hate him but you got to love him for creating Il Divo. I saw them Saturday night. Their voices are truly a gift from God and boy do they know how to use them. Most of the songs were not in English but who cares? You could recognize the songs even though I had no idea what language they were singing in. Each one has a unique beautiful voice on their own but when they power up and sing together well the goosebumps and tears don't do their talent justice. The place was packed and the cougars were out, but what a great time. If you ever get a chance to see them, do so, you won't be sorry.

All Star Game

So why does numnuts have to ruin the All Star Game. He was off in Europe on his latest apology tour, ogling 16 year old girls (http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-leer-heard-round-the-world)while his family sported $6K clutches and his oldest sported severe bad taste in peace sign Tees and now he comes back to the US and has to throw out the first pitch and emcee the game.

Leave baseball alone, you have destroyed all that I love in this country, leave my sport alone. Baseball is the only sport I love, and now he has to come along and ruin the All Star game. You have work to do, go back to the White House and do your job; you know the job you stole.

School Supplies

Wal-Mart has begun to get their school supplies out. I love school supplies,there is nothing better than newly sharpened pencils, a pad of paper, a box of 64 crayons, and don't forget the Elmers. They had the spiral 70 page notebooks for $.15 and I bought one in each color. Did I need them, no but they are school supplies and how can you resist not buying something for school. I know I will peruse the aisles cos when they put the pencil boxes for $.25, they make great craft boxes. There is a line in the movie "You've Got Mail" where Meg Ryan is talking a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils, I know how she feels.

Go get yourself some school supplies, you will feel better.

Stay-Cation Swap

So many people are deciding to stay in their own city and do day trips instead of take a real vacation complete with airfare, hotel, restaurants and whatever else people do on vacation.

This swap has you treating your swappee to: postcards from your city, a handmade item of whatever you like, yarn in the color of the sports teams, an edible or drinkable item from somewhere in your state, and local or state items and brochures of places that are a must see.

I have participated in quite a few swaps this year and I think I have more fun putting my box together than in getting one.

So do you know what your city has to offer? I was surprised as what mine had.

Death By Chocolate

In the paper today is an article about a guy who died while working in a chocolate factory. Camden, NJ, a man died after falling into a vat of melted chocolate in a New Jersey processing plant. He was 29 and a temp worker at the Cocoa Services, Inc. plant. He was loading chocolate into a vat where it's melted and mixed before being shipped off to be made into candy. A co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull him out of the 8' deep vat. He had been hit and fatally injured by the agitator that mixes the chocolate.

What a way to go!

Guns are Safer than Doctors

From my friend Bob:

This is logic you have to love. I rest my case.

Doctors
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year = 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.


Now think about this:
Guns
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (YES, Million)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188.

Statistics courtesy of FBI.


So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.


Remember, 'Guns don't kill people, doctors do.'



FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT

ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.



Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

Out of concern for the public at large, I withheld the statistics on lawyers
for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention!

Liberty Swap

So I belong to an online group of Conservative Knitters. We had a Liberty Swap for the 4th of July.

You were to send your swappee the following:

L-something to make her laugh
I-something to inspire her
B-something beautiful
E-something expressive of her
R-something rebellious
T-something tacky for the 4th
Y-some red/white/blue yarn.

Here is my package I received.

Obamagenda

A short list of the troubling changes coming from the newly formed Obama administration:

* Within days of taking office, signed an executive order overturning a policy that kept the federal government from paying for abortions overseas.

* He supports the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which would overturn any law that restricts abortion in any manner anywhere in the nation.

* Appointed Ks Gov to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, a Catholic, was recently rebuked by the Archbishop of KC for being so pro-abortion.

* Supports open homosexuality in the US military.

* Wants to expand hate crime statutes to include sexual orientation.

* Committed to passing ENDA (Employee Non-Discrimination Act) to include protection for sexual orientation or gender identity.

* Demonstrated a deep antipathy toward any serious efforts to protect tradiotional marriage against homosexual encroachment. He says he is against gay marriage but opposes a constitutional ban. He fully supports civil unions.

* He wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

* Wants to expand adoption rights to include homosexuals.

* Lifted the ban on embryonic stem cell research.

* Opposes President Bush's abstinence-only education policy.

* Wants to reduce the amount of tax credit some Americans receive for donating to charities or churches.

In GOD We Trust

So Hobby Lobby (one of my fav stores) always has a full page ad at certain holidays of the year. This 4th of July they had an ad addressing America and it's faith. Some of the excepts are as follows:

George Washington said "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to impore His protection and favor."

Patrick Henry said "An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!..."

John Jay (First Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court) said "The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts."

Congress 1853 said "We are a Christian people..."

Throughout the history of the US we are a nation of Christians no matter what numnuts says.

Voter Registration

Here's how voter registration should work: You move, your registration moves with you. You turn 18, you're added to the voters logs. You pay taxes, get a license, sign up for state or federal benefits, and registration is automatic.

The US registers 68% of the voting age population. All but three nations studied register 91% or better. The US puts a burden of registration on the voter.

Kit Bond had a role in passing the Help Americans Vote Act of 2002. One facet of that act was the creation of statewide databases, which were set up to accommodate data sharing with other agencies and states. The system is already ready; Congress just needs to turn it on.

So after 7 years why has Congress refused to turn this system on? How many more issues could be resolved by this data being shared?

Declaration of Independence

The liberal rag printed a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Interesting parts of it are as follows:

"...All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute a new government..."

We the people succeeded from Great Britain because the King was not following the rules, hence our current need for the Tea Parties and fighting agains the current administration.

"HE has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, and eat out their substance."

"HE has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:...FOR imposing taxes on us without our consent;..."

"In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may deifne a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

Read the Declaration of Independence and see if you don't think this is 1776 all over again.

Missouri Goes Blue

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is getting the last laugh in Missouri - and $450K in state taxpayer money, thanks to a settlement with the Department of Social Services. ACORN had accused Missouri of not following state law in registering residents who receive food stamps and Medicaid. Now, ACORN, says, the state is doing a bang-up job of getting new people onto the voter's roll - up to 11,000 a month.

Missouri was the last state to declare who got their electoral votes in the Potus election, but barely went red. With the nutjobs at ACORN Missouri is sure to be a smurf now.