Selling in the Capital

This past Tuesday evening, I conducted a fundraiser auction for the Congressional Sportsmens' Foundation on Capital Hill. A crowd of around 1,000 people participated in this event geared toward raising the funds necessary for CSF to continue to fight for the sportsmen and women in this country.

Lyman Bostock

I just watched a story on ESPN "Outside the Lines" about a baseball player who was killed in 1978. His name was Lyman Bostock and he finished his career through an untimely death. He wasn't your ordinary ballplayer. Let me explain:

When Bostock traded from the Twins (where he was making $20,000/year) to the California Angels - he was awarded one of the highest sports contracts in history - $2.25 million. He hit .336 in 1977 but was obscured by well known teammate Rod Carew.

Moving to the Angels, Bostock - with one of the best batting averages in major league baseball - fell into a slump - batting just .147.

Here is where it gets interesting: Bostock did not want his salary until he starting performing again. He wanted to feel that he earned his paycheck. When the club refused to stop his paycheck, Bostock gave almost all of the $36,000 to charity. From the story: "Though Bostock certainly craved the financial security that came with a high-priced deal, he knew what it was to live poor, knew he could be equally happy with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as he was with filet mignon. As Twins teammates overspent on fancy homes and luxury boats and snazzy automobiles, Lyman and Youvene lived in a simple one-bedroom apartment" Bostock's agent said.

Wow.

His sports agent said "He wasn't after the most lucrative contract -- just the happiest lifestyle."

If you can, I recommend the ESPN article (or you can watch the video) at this website:

ESPN - "Fifth & Jackson"


I have added a new name to my list of heroes. Thanks ESPN for sharing this with me.

Continuing the Rememberance.......

Let me first say that I was appalled by the terrorist threat that someone put on the 9/11 blog post of mine below. I hope the authorities tract that down.

As part of my travels over the past week or so, beginning on 9/11, I paid a visit to the new 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. It opened to the public last Thursday (9/11/08) and it is very moving.





The tragic terrorist act at the Pentagon took the lives (184) of not just those on board the airplane, but a significant number of people serving our great country inside the Pentagon.

The memorial is made up of benches, inscribed on the edge with the victims name. Benches with the end facing the Pentagon signifies a victim on the airplane. Ends facing away from the Pentagon signify those lost inside.

The monument is new - but I believe it will mature into something truly wonderful in the Nation's Capital......

Remembering

It is September 11, 2008.
It is 5:25 AM.
I am sitting in an airport, watching people as they get ready to board airplanes traveling to different destinations.
I am nervous to be traveling today.
I am thinking about those people who did this very same thing in 2001.
I pray for their families, the families of the victims in the towers in NYC, the families of those lost in the Pentagon........the heroes through it all.......the heroes fighting the war on terror today in far corners of the earth.
May you be blessed.
Thank you for protecting me and my family.

May God Bless America......Jeff

Global Effects!

I am taking this from Mike's America blog - because it is so necessary for as many people to read this and try to understand this! Thanks to Mike for his work!

From Mike's America:

No Sun Spots Means Bigger Problem: Global Cooling, NOT Global Warming

Another nail in the globaloney coffin!

What could be worse than Al Gore's apocalyptic scaremongering on global warming? A new ice age brought on not by man's emission of CO2 but the Sun taking a holiday.

It's a definite possibility especially with this latest news:

No spots means no warming and might mean rapid cooling.

Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century
By Michael Asher
Daily Tech
September 1, 2008

Drop in solar activity has potential effect for climate on earth.

The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.

The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots -- is an influencing factor for climate on earth.

According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749.

When the sun is active, it's not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop to near-zero. Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins.

But this year -- which corresponds to the start of Solar Cycle 24 -- has been extraordinarily long and quiet, with the first seven months averaging a sunspot number of only 3. August followed with none at all. The astonishing rapid drop of the past year has defied predictions, and caught nearly all astronomers by surprise.
...
In the past 1000 years, three previous such events -- the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums, have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called a "mini ice age". For a society dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. The growing season shortens, yields drop, and the occurrence of crop-destroying frosts increases.

Sunspot activity of the past decade. Over the past year, SIDC has continually revised its predictions downward (Source: Solar Influences Data Center)

A chart of sunspot activity showing two prior solar minima, along with heightened activity during the 20th century (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

And lest you think a new ice age would be better than global warming, think again. Famine, disease, death and political chaos worldwide would likely be the result.

Played on the Peninsula

We were played.

In February and April 2007, North Korea agreed to "abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards."

Supposedly, "this significant achievement commits all six parties to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and will lead to a more stable and secure Northeast Asia."

For doing this, North Korea received as it "complies with its commitment to declare all its nuclear programs and to disable all existing nuclear facilities (including reactors and processing plants), further shipments of economic, energy and humanitarian assistance equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil will be delivered in line with the principle of "action for action."" (Source: US Dept. of State Website)

Well, they're baaaaaccccckkkkk! The picture above is the Yongbyon facility. IAEA seals are broken and it more than appears that North Korea is re-starting its nuclear programs. Sources say that it could produce plutonium within two months!

They agreed to the deal long enough to get their hands on the fuel oil and other incentives. Furthermore, I believe that China influenced North Korea to go along with the deal until after the Olympics in order to placate the rest of the world, and then crank up their weapons program once the Games were over. Well, it seems the Games have just begun!

What are we going to give them to stop for a little while this time??

Let's do the math: I found that there are 7 barrels of petroleum per metric ton. 950,000 tons X 7 barrels = 6,650,000 multiplied by the going rate for crude oil (I know, they sent fuel oil, but for calculations sake - let's just use this, OK?) $105/barrel today (9/5/2008) = $698,250,000.

Go figure.........

I am a FAN!

My favorite lines from Gov. Palin's speech:

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change," she said.

"What exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make the government bigger and take more of your money."

"This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word 'victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign.

WOW! What a great "Hockey Mom!"

What is Wrong with This Picture

I was in line dropping the boys off at school last week and saw this bumper sticker. Now - I am going to leave the question open, waiting to see what you see as wrong with the bumper sticker: