First it was COP ROCK

First time I remember THEM taking away something I liked was when THEY cancelled the TV show called COP ROCK.
Being that it was Steven Bochco Production I never saw it coming....he was the TV king at the time and I figured that show was good for 4 or 5 years....but then after 13 weeks....ZAP

Years went by and I found myself being very careful about liking something that might not make it pass the first season....and then along came JOAN OF ARCADIA....

Not only did it make it through the first season......it actually had a second season and everything was progressing nicely and then ZAP...THEY did it again.....and THEY left the story hanging and
once again I was affected by THEIR choices.

So I get a bit less involved in serial television and devote more time to reading and writing.....which is a good thing.

One of the things I really enjoy reading on a weekly basis is the OPINION/BOOK REVIEW section of the LA TIMES. Normally the entire Sunday paper gets tossed but the OPINION/BOOK REVIEW section always stays around....for a few reasons. One reason is that I take my time with it and usually don't finish it until Tuesday or Wed. The other reason is that the book reviews are important for selections I might make at the library.

WHATEVER THE REASONS I LOVE THIS SECTION OF THE NEWSPAPER AND THEN I WAKE UP LAST SUNDAY MORNING AND READ THAT
THEY
HAVE DONE IT AGAIN

THEY have decided that revenue problems are reducing certain parts of the paper and OPINIONS AND BOOK REVIEWS are just not profitable centers for the company.

SAM ZELL is the new owner of the LA TIMES and it is widely known that he holds conservative points of view.....so it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that one way to eliminate opinions that might vary from yours...would be to eliminate them.

VERY MUCH LIKE THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT IN REFERENCE TO TIBET
AND HUMAN RIGHTS

SERIOUSLY

JUST LIKE THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT

I can't believe THEY have done this to me again. If I wake tomorrow and DOONESBURY has been canceled
I'LL HAVE
A
STROKE

BUT
I KNOW THAT
THEY
WON'T GIVE
A
RAT'S ASS

Michael Timothy McAlevey

girls ON THE PROWL

ELIZABETH......ALEXANDRA.....VANESSA......VICTORIA.... and guide

ALEXANDRA......ELIZABETH......GERALD THE DAD.......VANESSA......VICTORIA

Four girls on the prowl in South America. Please note this isn't some jungle ride in Orange County but a very real excursion on some river in some tropical area of South America....

The reason I say some river is because I AM AN IDIOT.

These beautiful smoking hot chicks are my nieces and last Sunday our family had a reunion for the first time in eight years and these SHCNs had just gotten back from extended time in South America......two of the four (Victoria and Elizabeth) were there for a much longer time than the other two (Alexandra and Vanessa) but they managed to hook up for experiences like the one you are looking at above.

There are quite a few reasons why I am an idiot......but the current one centers on the fact that three of these SHCN's were at the reunion and I failed to ask them questions about their time in South America....

The extent of my personal interest was probably summed up in a statement like...

"so....good to be home?"

I would like to take a personal moment and apologise to each and every one of them for the incredible oversight in discussing their amazing time in another land.

There should be a family gathering just to listen to their stories and see the pictures that they took.

Victoria and Elizabeth have stories.....oh do they have stories and I'm a complete idiot for not asking for at least one story during our family picnic....

INSTEAD OF ASKING MY BEAUTIFUL SHCN's ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE....I TOLD THEM THE STORY ABOUT THE GRATEFUL DEAD/WHO CONCERT THREE DAYS BEFORE MY THYROID SURGERY IN 1976......

I'M AN IDIOT AND I APOLOGISE.

NOT FOR TELLING THAT STORY BUT BECAUSE WHAT THEY'VE DONE RECENTLY IS SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT I DID IN 1976....

Victoria

Elizabeth

I apologise and I promise to take some time soon to hear about your amazing time in South America.....

Alexandra

I apologise for not asking you about school and your freshman year at UCSB....after all... besides being your uncle...I am your Godfather....which will prove to be much more interesting down the road than it is today.

Vanessa

I don't really have anything to apologize to you about but there must be something so here it is.

You girls are so incredible and so beautiful that it takes my breathe away.....

PAUSE

WHILE I GET MY BREATHE BACK

I am so honored to be your Uncle and yet I know I'm like an absentee Uncle.....but this morning I found a picture (above) that Alexandra and Elizabeth had made shortly after Sean left this dimension and it made me cry.....

I wasn't crying for Sean....I was crying because I don't think I've paid proper attention to members of my IMMEDIATE family...

I will attempt to alter that attention by moving in with Alexandra at UCSB for six months and then get an apartment with Victoria and Elizabeth for six months and then go to Seattle and move in with Venessa and her boyfriend for six months.....

I'm packing my bags right now and soon you will be able to say.....

WOW....UNCLE TIM REALLY IS INSANE.

Which might be very true.....but I love each and everyone of you

and there's nothing

crazy

about

that....

Now....Where did I put my suitcase?

Michael Timothy McAlevey

CHARGE!

Tesla Roadster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Tesla Roadster

Manufacturer
Tesla Motors
Also called
Code name: DarkStar [1]
Production
2008–present
Assembly
Lotus factory in Hethel, England
Class
Roadster
Body style(s)
Roadster
Layout
Rear Mid-engine, Rear-wheel drive
Platform
Unique, developed from Lotus Elise
Engine(s)
3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor
Transmission(s)
Two-speed computer-controlled dual clutch electro-hydraulic manual gearbox (under revision)
Wheelbase
2,352 mm (92.6 in)
Length
3,946 mm (155.4 in)
Width
1,873 mm (73.7 in)
Height
1,127 mm (44.4 in)
Fuel capacity
53 kW·h (Li-ion battery)
Electric range
220 mi (350 km)
Related
Lotus Elise
The Tesla Roadster is a fully electric sports car, and is the first car produced by electric car firm Tesla Motors. The car can travel 220 mi (350 km) on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery pack and accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.9 seconds with the development transmission. The Roadster's efficiency, as of February 2008, is reported as 199 W·h/km (3.12 mi/kW·h), equivalent to 105 mpg–U.S. (2.24 L/100 km / 126.1 mpg–imp).[2][3][4]

IMAGINE HOW MANY OF THESE WOULD SELL AT $29,000

OR

AT

$19,000

I realize that those figures are silly but if TESLA Motors can make and sell a fully electric sports car for $100,000

then why can't Toyota or GM make a similar car for $29,000 or $19,000.

I THINK YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION

THEY COULD....they just don't want to piss off the oil companies......

Michael Timothy McAlevey

These are not my numbers

By CHRISTINE SIMMONS, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 25, 7:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON -

The total cost of the Iraq war is approaching the Vietnam War's expense, a congressional report estimates, while spending for military operations after 9/11 has exceeded it.

The new report by the Congressional Research Service estimates the U.S. has spent $648 billion on Iraq war operations, putting it in range with the $686 billion, in 2008 dollars, spent on the Vietnam War, the second most expensive war behind World War II.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. has doled out almost $860 billion for military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world.

All estimates, adjusted for inflation, are based on the costs of military operations and don't include expenses for veterans benefits, interest on war-related debts or assistance to war allies, according to the nonpartisan CRS.

The report underscores how the price tag has been gradually rising for the war in Iraq, which began in March 2003. In late 2002, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels estimated the Iraq war would cost $50 billion to $60 billion. A year later, L. Paul Bremer, then-chief of the U.S. occupation government in Iraq, said the war would cost $100 billion.

Yet the Iraq war has consumed less of the nation's gross domestic product than other pricey conflicts. The Iraq war's costs represented 1 percent of GDP in the peak year of the war. World War II, with a $4.1 trillion price tag in 2008 dollars, was nearly 36 percent of GDP and the Vietnam War was 2.3 percent of GDP in that wars' peak years.

The report says comparisons of war expenses over hundreds of years "are inherently problematic" because of varying definitions of war costs. For example, the report's figures for the Vietnam War are Defense Department estimates of the incremental costs of military operations — the costs of war activities more than the normal, day-to-day costs of a standing military force. The costs for post 9/11 military operations are estimated from Congress-appropriated amounts and Defense Department reports.

The CRS report warns that comparisons of costs in inflation-adjusted prices are a "very rough exercise."

"It is difficult to know what it really means to compare costs of the American Revolution to costs of military operations in Iraq when, 230 years ago, the most sophisticated weaponry was a 36-gun frigate that is hardly comparable to a modern $3.5 billion destroyer," researchers wrote.
Here are the report's estimated costs of major wars, in 2008 dollars, and their costs as a percentage of GDP in each of their peak years:

_American Revolution: $1.8 billion; GDP figure not available
_War of 1812: $1.2 billion; 2.2 percent
_Civil War, Union: $45.2 billion; 11.3 percent
_Civil War, Confederacy: $15.2 billion; GDP figure not available
_World War I: $253 billion; 13.6 percent
_World War II: $4.1 trillion; 35.8 percent
_Korean War: $320 billion; 4.2 percent
_Vietnam War: $686 billion; 2.3 percent
_Gulf War: $96 billion; 0.3 percent
_Iraq war: $648 billion; 1 percent
_Afghanstian/Global war on terror: $171 billion; 0.3 percent
_Post 9/11 domestic security: $33 billion; 0.1 percent
_Post 9/11 operations: $859 billion; 1.2 percent
___

I DON'T SUPPOSE THERE IS ANYTHING BETTER
TO DO WITH ONE'S MONEY THAN SPEND IT ON WAR.

I know that Halliburton is quite happy with these figures

Michael Timothy McAlevey

MORE ODDNESS

Researcher says Gulf dead zone bigger than ever!

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer Posted Wed Jul 23, 2008

HOUSTON - A "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the biggest ever and last longer than ever before, with marine life affected for hundreds of miles, a scientist warned.
"It's definitely the worst we've seen in the last five years," said Steve DiMarco, a Texas A&M University professor of oceanography who for 16 years has studied the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, so named because the oxygen-depleted water can kill marine life.

The phenomenon is caused when salt water loses large amounts of oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia that is typically associated with an area off the Louisiana coast at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The fresh water and salt water don't mix well, keeping oxygen from filtering through to the sea bottom, which causes problems for fish, shrimp, crabs and clams.
This year's dead zone has been aggravated by flood runoff from heavy spring rains and additional runoff moving into the Gulf from record floods along the Mississippi.

DiMarco, joined by researchers from Texas A&M and the University of Georgia, just returned from an examination of 74 sites between Terrebonne and Cameron, La. He said the most severe hypoxia levels were recorded in the mid-range depths, between 20 and 30 feet, as well as near the bottom of the sea floor at about 60 feet.

Some of the worst hypoxic levels occurred in the western Gulf toward the state line.
"We saw quite a few areas that had little or no oxygen at all at that site," DiMarco said Tuesday. "This dead zone area is the strongest we've seen since 2004, and it's very likely the worst may be still to come.
"Since most of the water from the Midwest is still making its way down to the Gulf, we believe that wide area of hypoxia will persist through August and likely until September, when it normally ends."

Last year, DiMarco discovered a similar dead zone off the Texas coast where the rain-swollen Brazos River emptied into the Gulf.
The zone off Louisiana reached a record 7,900 square miles in 2002. A recent estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana State University shows the zone, which has been monitored for about 25 years, could exceed 8,800 square miles this year, an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

DiMarco said a tropical storm or hurricane likely would have no impact on this year's zone, believed to be caused by nutrient pollution from fertilizers that empty into rivers and eventually reach the Gulf.

JUST ADD IT TO THE LIST OF MORE ODDNESS......

everyday there seems to be a few of these stories
and the
election
is just
starting to roll

THINGS COULD GET A LOT STRANGER BEFORE NOVEMBER

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Weren't they the first?

By JOHN TAGLIABUE
Published: July 22, 2008
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands — The Dutch are building windmills again. Up and down the coast, out from port cities like this one, you can see them: white and tall and slender as pencils, their three slim blades turning lazily in the North Sea breeze.

These generate electricity, of course, rather than grind grain.

The government has already built one enormous farm of mills far off the coast, where they’re inoffensive to tourists, and there are plans for a second farm.

Yet it is also building, and rebuilding, mills like the squat, homely ones that have seemingly always dotted the Dutch countryside, and reflect as much the nature of the country as do tulips or Gouda cheese.

“Revival might be a bit strong,” said Leo Endedijk, director of the Dutch Mills, a group that supports mill restoration. Yet last year the government, concerned that one of the foremost symbols of the Netherlands was about to disappear out of neglect, approved an $80 million program to build or restore 120 mills, of roughly 1,040 still standing. That has created a backlog of work for previously strapped mill restorers.

“We have special companies, very specialized mill makers and restorers,” said Mr. Endedijk, in an office in the shadow of De Gooyer, a soaring 18th-century mill now housing a popular brewery. “They would not have the capacity to restore 120 mills.”

The need to find renewable sources of energy is driving the Dutch to build the modern mills, which Mr. Endedijk insists be called turbines, not mills. “We as an organization don’t work with modern wind turbines,” he sniffed, adding, as if to underscore the gap between the traditional and the contemporary, that while the four blades of traditional windmills turn counterclockwise, the three of modern wind turbines go clockwise.

But the fast pace of change in the modern Netherlands is reviving interest in the old mills. As immigration changes the face of Dutch cities and globalization spreads its veil of uniformity over life in the Netherlands, many among the Dutch are looking for their roots. “It’s a little bit of national pride,” said Lukas Verbij, whose company, Verbij Hoogmade, is one of the leading mill builders and restorers.

Some of the renewed interest in mills is driven by the search for traditional food and drink. Patrick Langkruis, whose bakeshop, Het Bammetje, features 28 different kinds of bread and 35 different rolls, uses only flour ground by a traditional mill. “The taste is fuller, there’s more flavor,” he said. “It’s also because the grains are ground slowly.”

His supplier is Karel Streumer, who has been grinding out ordinary and exotic grains for the last eight years at his mill, De Distilleerketel, or distillery pot, in Delfshaven, on the edge of Rotterdam. He uses technology — huge mill stones and enormous wooden gears that make visitors feel they’re inside an immense and ancient clock — that has not changed since the mill was built in 1727.

Mr. Streumer, 54, his shock of curly white hair perpetually dusted with flour, is one of a growing number of millers who are taking over restored or rebuilt mills. In addition to wheat, he said, counting off his products on a dusty hand, he grinds familiar grains like corn, rye and oats, and some unfamiliar ones, like grain sorghum, or milo, and spelt (a kind of wheat). One customer arrives once a month from Frankfurt to pick up 55 pounds of mashela, or pearl millet, which is widely used in African cooking.

Curiously, though the revival of the mills is a back-to-the-roots thing, many customers are natives of a wide range of countries, Mr. Streumer said, including Ethiopia, Morocco and Turkey.

“Eighty percent of my customers are not natives of the Netherlands,” he said.
One of them is Samson Tesfai, whose restaurant, the Taste of Africa, specializes in dishes of his native Eritrea, which he fled in 1986 because of the fighting between his homeland and Ethiopia. Each week, he said, he buys mashela, sorghum, ground corn and wheat flour from Mr. Streumer to use in the ethnic dishes he prepares. “We can find it elsewhere,” said Mr. Tesfai, 43. “But this is a good address, with a good product, so why go somewhere else?”
Neither the spread of ethnic restaurants, with increased immigration, nor the return to traditional tastes among the Dutch is enough to keep millers like Mr. Streumer in business.

Without a crew of volunteers who help out on weekends, he said, the mill would not be profitable. “It’s hard to make the money to keep the mill in good shape, and to pay employees, too,” he said. “We are not professionals.”
So the mills remain a matter of the heart, rather than the pocketbook. Except, of course, for builders like Mr. Verbij, 48. He represents the fourth generation of his family to run the company, which was founded in 1868 and employs about 20 master wood and metal workers.
“A wave of building is coming,” Mr. Verbij said, when the government releases its latest round of subsidies. “Every owner could apply,” he added. “It’s a kind of lottery.”
He just finished a $1.9 million project to rebuild with traditional technology a mill in the town of Soest that was destroyed in 1930. So attached were the townspeople to their mill, he said, one woman donated money from the sale of her home.

Not only the Dutch but all the world seems to love a windmill. Mr. Verbij has built four in Japan, beginning with one in Osaka in 1989. And despite the crush of work in the Netherlands, he now finds time to work on three mills in the United States, including restoration of the giant Murphy Windmill in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, one of the world’s largest, which was built in 1905 and is badly dilapidated.


“It’s our biggest project,” Mr. Verbij said. “It’s nice to see all those people happy at the sight of a windmill.”

AWAKE SANCHO.......WE HAVE DRAGONS TO SLAY! AND A BIT OF WIND TO CAPTURE!

Michael Timothy McAlevey

Not so HAPPY FEET

By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 20, 4:35 PM ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday.

More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.
While it is common here to find some penguins — both dead and alive — swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Rescuers and those who treat penguins are divided over the possible causes.
Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat "and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents."

Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, already has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year and many are drenched in petroleum, Muniz said. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.

Muniz said he hadn't seen penguins suffering from the effects of other pollutants, but he pointed out that already dead penguins aren't brought in for treatment.
Pimenta suggested pollution is to blame.
"Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs," Pimenta said, quoting biologists who work with him.

But biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro's Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved.

"I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher," Costa said.

Costa said the vast majority of penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.
Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia.

I'm wondering if those special trees in Cambodia have anything to do with this story. I've heard stories about how far Penguins can walk and Cambodia to Patagonia doesn't seem unworkable. They swim and walk....right?

MIchael Timothy McAlevey

SERIOUSLY HIGH

(UN WIRE)

CAMBODIA: Ecstasy tabs destroying forest wilderness

Large numbers of trees are being chopped down for fire-wood for the lengthy sassafras distillation processPHNOM PENH, 20 July 2008 (IRIN) -

The production of sassafras oil, which is used to make the recreational drug ecstasy, in southwest Cambodia, is destroying trees, the livelihoods of local inhabitants and wreaking untold ecological damage, according to David Bradfield, adviser to the Wildlife Sanctuaries Project of Fauna and Flora International (FFI).

The sassafras oil comes from the Cardamom Mountain area, one of the last forest wildernesses in mainland southeast Asia, and where the FFI project is based.

"The illicit distilling of sassafras oil in these mountains is slowly but surely killing the forests and wildlife," Bradfield told IRIN. "The production of sassafras oil is a huge operation, which affects not only the area where the distilleries are actually located, but ripples outwards, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake."

The livelihoods of 12,000-15,000 people who depend on hunting and gathering to survive in the wildlife sanctuary are at risk from the sassafras production operations.

Cambodian sassafras oil is highly sought after as it is of the highest quality - over 90 percent pure, according to the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Cambodia, Lars Pedersen.

"Massive amounts of sassafras oil are smuggled every year into Vietnam and Thailand from Cambodia," he said.

What is sassafras oil?

Sassafras oil is made from the roots of the rare Mreah Prew Phnom tree - also known as Cinnamomum parathenoxylon. The roots are first chopped into small blocks of wood and shredded into a fibrous consistency. This is then typically put into large metal vats and distilled over hot wood fires for at least five days in the oil distillation process. "[The Mreah Prew Phnom] is a very rare tree that is now beginning to disappear because of the illegal distilleries in the Cardamom Mountains," Bradfield said.

A seized distillery at Mreah Prew. The wood used to make sassafras is extremely rare and becoming extinctEnvironmental toll "The production of sassafras oil over the last 10 years has severely depleted these trees and if the illicit production isn't stamped out soon, they could become extinct in the near future," he warned. The large vats also need substantial wood to maintain the fires, so other species of trees surrounding the distilling factory are being depleted. Deep in the jungle, the factories are heavily guarded and the workers who distill the oil live on wildlife in the area; many are involved in poaching for commercial gain. Rare animals, including tigers, pangolins, peacocks, pythons and wild cats are consumed by the distillers or sold in illegal wildlife markets, according to FFI. "Sassafras oil processing plants are usually located besides streams to provide water for boiling and cooling the distilled oil," Bradfield said. The oil leaks into the streams, wreaking yet more environmental damage. "There are frequently dead fish and frogs floating in the streams near these distilleries," Bradfield said. The water from this area flows down into the rest of Cambodia through the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. "Water tests in the area need to be carried out as a matter of urgency," he suggested. So far no tests have been carried out on the affect this water has had on villagers living downstream from the distilleries. "But it's certainly killing the fauna and flora in the vicinity of the factories," he said, having seen the damage himself. Four years ago the Cambodian government made the production of sassafras oil illegal in an effort to protect the Mreah Prew Phnom tree. Since then the authorities have tried to eliminate the illicit production in the Cardamom Mountains with the help of international organisations, including FFI, the UN Development Programme, Wildlife Alliance and Conservation International. "Law enforcement is the key to suppressing the illegal trade in sassafras oil," according to the officer in charge of UNODC in Cambodia, Lars Pedersen. "It's a very lucrative trade," he added, "worth millions and millions of dollars."

These rangers are the foot soldiers protecting the forests. They operate in thick, leech-infested jungle, risking their lives every day for a paltry salary.Policing the area Some 50 rangers from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry are currently policing the area with the support of independent conservation groups and the UNDP. "These rangers are the foot soldiers protecting the forests," said FFI's David Bradfield. "They are the heroes of the protection effort... They operate in thick, leech-infested jungle, risking their lives every day for a paltry salary," he said. FFI has supported the operations of these rangers since 2003. They provide their uniforms, equipment and training. They help build their ranger stations and continue to give technical advice. The UNDP also supported the project between 2004 and 2006. The rangers face stiff challenges in putting an end to the illegal trade given the large profits smugglers can make, and the relatively small number of rangers assigned to the task.

Last November the Thai authorities seized more than 50 tonnes of sassafras oil near the Cambodian border on its way to China and the USA, according to Western anti-narcotics agents who declined to be identified. They said the single seizure was reported to be worth US$500,000, a significant amount of money in rural Cambodia.

Once in China and the USA, where it could be used to make the synthetic drug, it could have produced 7.5 million tablets worth around US$150 million, according to Western anti-narcotics agents.

IF IT ISN'T ONE THING IT'S ANOTHER.....this might slightly explain why Nixon bombed Cambodia....

Michael Timothy McAlevey

YOU GO GIRL!

By STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago
BOSTON - An activist group hoping to pressure the Roman Catholic church into dropping its long-standing prohibition barring women from the priesthood says it ordained three women on Sunday.
Church officials did not recognize the ordination, and the Vatican has previously warned that women taking part in ordination ceremonies will be excommunicated.
The group known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests held the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, a Protestant Church in Boston.
The group said the three women — Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, Judy Lee of Fort Myers, Fla., and Gabriella Velardi Ward of New York City — are responding to a heartfelt call to serve the church as priests.
A fourth woman, Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, N.J., was ordained as a deacon, the group said.
The Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement decrying the ceremony.
"Catholics who attempt to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the women who attempt to receive a sacred order, are by their own actions separating themselves from the church," the archdiocese said.
The group says the women who are ordained remain loyal members of the church and will act as priests whether they are excommunicated or not.
Sunday's ordination ceremony was performed by two women the group describes as bishops — Ida Raming of Struttgart, Germany, and Dana Reynolds from California.
The ceremony "is not in compliance with their man-made rules, but it's certainly in compliance with the Roman Catholic ordination rituals because our bishops were ordained by all-male Roman Catholic bishops who are in good standing with the church," as provided by the church's ordination rituals, said Bridget Mary Meehan, the group's spokeswoman.
The group, which was formed in 2002, has conducted similar ceremonies in the U.S. and other parts of the world.
In March, the archbishop of St. Louis excommunicated three women — two Americans and a South African who were part of the Womenpriests movement — for participating in a woman's ordination.
Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, has rebuffed calls to change traditional church teachings on the requirement that priests be male.
Catholics who are excommunicated cannot receive sacraments. The penalty can be lifted if those who have been punished are sincerely repentant.

RUMORS ARE CIRCULATING THAT HILLARY WILL BE JOINING THIS GROUP SOON...
NOW
THAT'S
A
GREAT RUMOR.....

Michael Timothy McAlevey

WHAT OIL COMPANY WILL HE RUN?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush lifted an executive order banning offshore oil drilling on Monday and urged Congress to follow suit.

If President Bush can persuade Congress, more oil rigs like this one off Canada could appear off U.S. shores.

Citing the high prices Americans are paying at the pump, Bush said from the White House Rose Garden that allowing offshore oil drilling is "one of the most important steps we can take" to reduce that burden.
However, the move is largely symbolic as there is also a federal law banning offshore drilling.
"This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil reserves is action from the U.S. Congress," Bush said. Watch Bush announce lifting of ban »
Bush has been pushing Congress to repeal the law passed in 1981.
"There is no excuse for delay," the president said in a Rose Garden statement last month. iReport.com: Is drilling the answer?
"In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home," Bush said, adding that there is no more pressing issue for many Americans than gas prices.
Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, signed the executive order in 1990 banning offshore drilling. See where offshore drilling is allowed »
The issue has gained prominence in the presidential race. Sen. John McCain recently announced he supported offshore oil drilling, reversing his previous stance.
Oil production costHere's what the price of a barrel of oil needs to be for different sources of petroleum to be profitably extracted: - Accessible land: $19 - Shallow water: $20-60 - Deep water: $60 - Shale mining: $30-50 - Oil sands: $50-60 Current price per barrel: $145Sources: U.S. Govt. CERA, Rand, EnCana
Sen. Barack Obama wants to keep the ban in place.
Experts say offshore oil drilling would not have an immediate impact on oil prices because oil exploration takes years.
"If we were to drill today, realistically speaking, we should not expect a barrel of oil coming out of this new resource for three years, maybe even five years, so let's not kid ourselves," said Fadel Gheit, oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. Equity Capital Markets Division.
But it almost certainly would be profitable.
Candida Scott, an oil industry researcher at Cambridge Research Associates, said oil needs to be priced at $60 a barrel or more to justify deep-shelf drilling. With oil now selling for $145 a barrel, companies are almost assured of profiting from offshore drilling, Scott said.
In his statement last month, Bush also renewed his demand that Congress allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, clear the way for more refineries and encourage efforts to recover oil from shale in areas such as the Green River Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
The White House estimates that there are 18 billion barrels of oil offshore that have not been exploited because of state bans, 10 billion to 12 billion in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Green River Basin.

I HAVE ONE QUESTION AND ONE QUESTION ONLY...
WHAT OIL COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS WILL GEORGE BE ON IN 2009?

Michael Timothy McAlevey

A BOONE FOR WIND

(CNN) -- Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power.

T. Boone Pickens talks about the advantages of wind power on CNN.

The legendary entrepreneur and philanthropist on Tuesday unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States' dependency on foreign oil by more than one-third and help shift American energy production toward renewable natural resources.
"The Pickens Plan" calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind, and switching from oil to natural gas as a transportation fuel.
In a news conference outlining his proposal, Pickens said his impetus for the plan is the country's dangerous reliance on foreign oil.
"Our dependence on imported oil is killing our economy. It is the single biggest problem facing America today," he said. Watch Pickens discuss plan for wind power »
"Wind power is ... clean, it's renewable. It's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy," Pickens told CNN in May. "It's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind."
Pickens' company, Mesa Power, recently announced a $2 billion investment as the first step in a multibillion-dollar plan to build the world's largest wind farm in Pampa, Texas.
Pickens said Tuesday that if the United States takes advantage of the so-called "wind corridor," stretching from the Canadian border to West Texas, energy from wind turbines built there could supply 20 percent or more of the nation's power. He suggested the project could be funded by private investors.
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PickensPlan: Reducing dependence on foreign oil
Power from thousands of wind turbines that would line the corridor could be distributed throughout the country via electric power transmission lines and could fuel power plants in large population hubs, the oil baron said.
Fueling these plants with wind power would then free up the natural gas historically used to power them, and would mean that natural gas could replace foreign oil as fuel for motor vehicles, he said.
Using natural gas for transportation needs could replace one-third of the United States' imported oil and would save more than $230 billion a year, Pickens said.
"We are going to have to do something different in America," Pickens told CNN. "You can't keep paying out $600 billion a year for oil."

THIS IS WHAT IT WILL TAKE.....

PEOPLE WITH LOTS OF MONEY TALKING TO THE PEOPLE WHO CONTROL THE MONEY TO DO SOMETHING WORTHWHILE WITH THE MONEY SO THAT WE DON'T KEEP GIVING THE MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T BASICALLY LIKE US.

WIND FARMS FROM TEXAS TO SOUTH DAKOTA COULD PRODUCE AT LEAST 20% OF THE ENERGY NEEDED FOR THE UNITED STATES

Then each WINDMILL could be illuminated with multi-colored LEDs and the entire project could turn into a huge boom for tourism. A highway could be built next to the project and pretty soon small motels will appear and then roadside diners and then trailer parks and then McD's and then small towns in the middle of nowhere and then a high speed railroad so people could go from the southern tip of the project to the northern tip in about 30 minutes. It won't mean anything without the LED lights....keeping in mind that LEDs have millions of color changing properties because they are controlled by a semi-conductor.

It could be called the AMERICAN BOONEWINDFARM....which sounds like some cheap wine from the 70's....so maybe it could be called

WINDYBOONE RANCH
or
BOONEWINDY
or
T.BOONEWINDMASTER PARK

Oh this could go on and on and on.....but you get my drift.

The main problem with this project has to do with a small statement that Mr. Pickens made while discussing the project.

"IF WE GET CONGRESS AND THE ADMINISTRATION TO ACT QUICKLY....then this plan could make a difference in 5 to 10 years."

Oh yeah and one other small part of the equation.....what do the oil companies receive from such a project? And we are all adults here and we know that if the oil companies don't approve or get something then the entire idea simply

DIES.....and you know it and I know it and there's not a damn thing to do about it.......

UNLESS THE BOONE TRAIN STARTS FILLING UP WITH MORE CASH COW VOICES.....MORE POWERFUL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE....ABLE TO LEAP TALL BUILDINGS....

......SUCH AS WILLIAM GATES, WHO JUST RETIRED, AND STEVE JOBS WHO JUST LIKES TO MAKE NOISE AND LARRY ELLISON WHO JUST LIKE TO SPEND MONEY AND WARREN BUFFET WHO PROBABLY OWNS ALL THE LAND BETWEEN TEXAS AND SOUTH DAKOTA......ON AND ON AND ON AND ON.....

IF SOME OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ABOVE ...OR ALL OF THE PEOPLE LISTED ABOVE JUMPED ON THE T. BOONE WINDTRAIN....IT COULD HAPPEN...

AND IT COULD HAPPEN FOR ONE SIMPLE REASON...and that small little reason
is.....

IT SHOULD HAPPEN

it should happen!

IT SHOULD HAPPEN!

IT SHOULD HAPPEN!

I think it should happen could be the next great slogan.....MAYBE I'LL COPYRIGHT IT AND SELL IT TO NIKE AND THEN I COULD JOIN THE...

T.BOONE WINDTRAIN ALONG THE PLAIN PROJECT

THEY COULD USE SOMEONE LIKE ME.....SOMEONE STARTING FROM ZERO....NONE OF THOSE PEOPLE LISTED ABOVE HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE DOWN HERE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MONEY TREE....AND i CAN HELP THEIR PERSPECTIVE...

it should happen!

and it should happen makes so much more sense then it will happen because there are no guarantees... and so many things should happen
but
that doesn't mean
they will....

but it's all about the dream....and this morning Mr. T. Boone Pickens slightly elevated the ESS (energy solving solution) dream....now if we could get T. Boone to concentrate on the CCD problem then we are really talking big stuff....

....and by the way...


IT SHOULD HAPPEN!

MICHAEL TIMOTHY MC ALEVEY

the story is the glory and bees are still a problem

Some great new names and some older legends are having a big week in Omaha and Oregon.

The pixel picture is of Jordan Hasay and it has to be fake because that 16 year old junior in High School can not possibly be in the finals of an US Olympic Track and Field event....it can't be true...there has to be trick photography, like the famous baseball non-catch that's been floating around the Internet......it can't be real...but then again....her ponytail seems real enough.

She doesn't have a chance to finish in the top three but the fact that she's in the final of the women's 1500 meter is why the glory is in the story....

IT'S NOT ABOUT WINNING....but of course there will be people screaming and yelling during the Olympics and bitching and moaning that we didn't win enough Gold medals and athletes will walk away thinking they disappointed.....but the glory is in the story and the story has many many participants and the winner always seems to be the only one we care about.

Of course we have a lot of those type on our team but we also have tremendous sub stories....stories that would make you cry if you paid attention.

From the 16 year old in Oregon to a 41 year old mom in Omaha.....the glory is in the story and Dara Torres might be the most incredible story to emerge from the Olympic trials....

She just made her 50th Olympic team........or is it the fifth? Whatever it is she is incredible.

Amanda Beard is back on the team and Playboy is really happy about that.

Kara Goucher has made a name for herself in long distance running....which gives us a DARA AND a KARA on the team.

Jeremy Wariner finished second in the 400 meters but that's just going to piss him off and make him faster in the Olympics. It's one of the events that the United States will sweep.

And then there's Michael Phelps. Seriously that guy is from Atlantis. I think he speaks Dolphin and I have nothing to say except.......wow.

And then the we get to the BEEs.....COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER is still an unsolved problem and while I love the Olympics....I really love pollination more....and without one there is no other.....and I mean NO OTHER.....NOTHING....NADA...ZIP....

Please write your congressman and express your thoughts on the government finding an answer to CCD....and finding it sooner than later would be advantageous to the health of the human species.

AND THEN AFTER YOU CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN, AND OR SENATOR....THEN TUNE IN TO THE UNITED STATES OLYMPIC TRIALS.....TWO MORE DAYS AND THEN OFF TO CHINA.

Which by the way I hear they've solved all of their smog and pollination problems.

Isn't that nice.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

It's hard enough and NBC isn't helping

It's hard enough for people to get excited about the Olympics and NBC is going out of their way to make it harder for us to learn about out athletes.

They show the United States Track and Field Championships at 11 pm on the USA Network.

The trials and tribulations that our men and women go through to get on the team is beyond our normal comprehension.

They have been working for four years and so many of them miss by a hundredth of second.

The Olympics is a bonus...the trials that are happening right now are the true test.

It doesn't get any better than this and unless you have a DVR player or stay up really late you won't have any idea of the efforts being put forth.

NBC has chosen not to show these athletes in prime time and they will be the same people moaning when the numbers are there during the actual games.

The Olympics start on August 8....but right now is the make and break moments for our track stars and our swimming stars.

Tune in this weekend and watch the stories unfold and I promise you that it will increase your 2008 Olympic experience.

Michael Timothy McAlevey

I thought I heard something

I thought I heard something but I had no idea........



Robert Roy BrittSenior Science WriterSPACE.com Tue Jul 1, 12:33 AM ET
Earth emits an ear-piercing series of chirps and whistles that could be heard by any aliens who might be listening, astronomers have discovered.

The sound is awful, a new recording from space reveals.

Scientists have known about the radiation since the 1970s. It is created high above the planet, where charged particles from the solar wind collide with Earth's magnetic field. It is related to the phenomenon that generates the colorful aurora, or Northern Lights.
The radio waves are blocked by the ionosphere, a charged layer atop our atmosphere, so they do not reach Earth. That's good, because the out-of-this-world radio waves are 10,000 times stronger than even the strongest military signal, the researchers said, and they would overwhelm all radio stations on the planet.
Theorists had long figured the radio waves, which were not well studied, oozed into space in an ever-widening cone, like light from a torch.
But new data from the European Space Agency's Cluster mission, a group of four high-flying satellites, reveals the bursts of radio waves head off to the cosmos in beam-like fashion, instead.
This means they're more detectable to anyone who might be listening.
The Auroral Kilometric Radiation (AKR), as it is called, is beamed out in a narrow plane, as if someone had put a mask over a torch and left a slit for the radiation to escape.
This flat beam could be detected by aliens who've figured this process out, the researchers say. The knowledge could also be used by Earth's astronomers to detect planets around other stars, if they can build a new radio telescope big enough for the search. They could also learn more about Jupiter and Saturn by studying AKR, which should emit from the auroral activity on those worlds, too.
"Whenever you have aurora, you get AKR," said Robert Mutel, a University of Iowa researcher involved in the work.
The AKR bursts -- Mutel and colleagues studied 12,000 of them -- originate in spots the size of a large city a few thousand miles above Earth and above the region where the Northern Lights form.
"We can now determine exactly where the emission is coming from," Mutel said.
Our planet is also known to hum, a mysterious low-frequency sound thought to be caused by the churning ocean or the roiling atmosphere.
Audio: Hear Earth Scream
Video: Earthrise Seen from the Moon
101 Amazing Earth Facts
Original Story: Earth's Cries Recorded in Space
Visit SPACE.com

I've often wondered what that humming sound was but always thought it was just in my head....now I feel a tad bit better.

I hope the sound doesn't change according to Supreme Court rulings...because there have been some opinions lately that cause me to scream.

The strangest ruling
(and each of us will have a different favorite)
... INJURED PATIENTS OR THEIR SURVIVORS MAY NOT SUE THE MAKERS OF ALLEGEDLY DEFECTIVE MEDICAL DEVICES IF THE DEVICES WERE APPROVED BY THE FDA.

Of course removing the Death Penalty for Child Rape might rank up there...but I have personal issues with the Death Penalty...but if the Death Penalty is going to exist then the rape of a child should probably be left in the equation.

The reduction of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is just flat out wrong. Especially when profits have been out of this world. $507 million dollars is about one day (?) of profits for Exxon Mobil. They should at the very least had to cough up a year of profits. They made $10 BILLION in the first quarter.

I've said it before and I'll say it again....the only reason to be President of the United States is so that you might possibly have a chance to nominate a Supreme Court Justice during your term....and if you win the lottery you can appoint two.

The Supreme Court has the final say in all matters.

No wonder the planet is making strange sounds.

Michael Timothy McAlevey