The Art of Lawn Mowing…

Today sucked… A lot of things went wrong that should have been easy, but that’s ok, it ended well.  I was reintroduced to the joys of mowing my yard with a push mower. It may sound strange to say something like this, but hear me out:

As a kid, the mindless tedium of mowing gave me the chance to ponder the really big questions of life… Like ‘I wonder if what’s her and I will get together” or going over the newest additions to the play book from Coach.  I had time on my hands and a restless mind; which I used for good… Usually. 

Today, my mind is still restless but my questions are a bit more serious.  While walking behind that mower I began to think about some of the news stories that I’ve read, like the Department of Homeland Security painting what seems to be any dissention against the current administration as “rightwing extremist activity” or state governments finding it necessary to reaffirm their sovereignty in accordance with the 10^th Amendment of the US Constitution. I mean, what is going on with our MY country? Has it come to the point where you’re either Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican with no room for being an American? 

I choose to be an American first and a party member later! I choose to live my life and conform my civic philosophies to those of the Founding Fathers, men who knew and believed in words like sacrifice, honor, courage, and patriotism. I choose to cling to my guns AND my religion and dare anyone to try to take them away!  Finally, I choose to stand up and be counted as one who still thinks Freedom and Liberty are things worth fighting for.

I guess the burning question I had running around in my head was this:

Are you man enough to live in the United States as envisioned by the Founding Fathers? 

Think about that before you answer.  There are several things that go along with it.  Are willing to stand up to your party ideologies when they are morally wrong – or go contrary to the Constitution? Are you willing to take responsibility for your own actions? Are you willing to rely on yourself and, God willing, your church for help? In short, could you take every political and social entitlement belief you have and find where the Constitution grants them? Then, if they are not in there, could you throw them out or revise them to bring them inline with the Constitution? Can you resist the compulsion to negate one civil liberty to protect other ones? Can you truthfully tell me that you would vigorously defend the right to free speech for someone whose beliefs are repugnant to you?

Folks we are at a cross road of American History. We stand on the brink of destruction by a government that is not fiscally responsible, or morally representative of our core values, and is out of compliance with what was written all those years ago.

Think about what we are doing to our country! We need to elect people that are strict Constitutionalist and fiscally responsible. Do not vote for someone just because you share a party affiliation. Vote for those that follow the rule of law and will make the tough choices to up hold our sovereignty in the face of opposition from abroad. Vote for those that will let the military fight the wars and give our fallen and wounded soldiers the respect they deserve. But most importantly vote for those who would never see our nation as arrogant or intolerant.  

I’m @dkirkland and I AM a true American! 

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

City of Burleson Tea Party

Below are emails exchanged between my self and the mayor of Burleson.  As you can see from his response, he must have gotten a few undignified emails from some people.

Mr. Shetter,
I am trying to find out before I forward http://www.freedomworks.org/comment/reply/19372 to the national media if the City of Burleson is in the process of denying free citizens their constitutional right to a peaceful gathering.  It is my understanding that you are not the one blocking this teaparty, but rather one of the city employees, an unelected “street supervisor” Ray Gonzales,  that believes the event is "not in the public interest".  To help further this along, Mr. Gonzales reports to city manger  David Wynn.  Please consider having a review this situation and resolve it soon.

Respectfully,
Dennis Kirkland
twitter @dkirkland

      FROM:            Mayor Ken Shetter, City of Burleson

RE:                  Burleson Tea Party

SUBJ:             City of Burleson is Not Shutting Down Tea Party

 

 

Concerned Citizen:

 

The City of Burleson is NOT TRYING TO STOP THE APRIL 15 TEA PARTY. 

 

Members of the Burleson Tea Party group have contacted the City of Burleson wanting permission to conduct a demonstration in an area near the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard (State Highway 174) and Hidden Creek Parkway. The area is across the street from the location of the Burleson Super Wal-Mart, and adjacent to a residential area. The area where the demonstration has been planned includes right of way for the state highway, municipal right of way, and a city street. The organizer said the event is expected to draw between 300 and 500 people to participate in the demonstration.  

 

From the beginning the city has made it clear that no city permit is required for the gathering.  This being said, the city has also made it clear that there are a number of safety related concerns that need to be addressed at the originally proposed location. It is one of the busiest street intersections in the city.  The posted speed limit on Wilshire/SH 174 is 50 mph. It is a 4-lane highway with a center turn lane. It is a heavily travelled highway, particularly during the hours of the planned demonstration (3-7 pm) when school is dismissing and evening going home drive-time traffic is at its peak. The original request also included the barricading of four residential streets to keep group members from parking in the neighborhoods. The city’s main concerns are safety of the demonstrators and other pedestrians, traffic safety,  and the ability for fire trucks to get in and out of the residential streets and hook up to fire hydrants. In speaking with representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation, it is clear that TxDOT and the city share the safety concerns.

 

The city has a special events committee that reviews requests for street closures (for example, neighborhood block parties, festivals). That committee met Thursday to review the request. Due to the topography of the area and the design of the highway, the number of anticipated participants in the demonstration, and the other safety concerns the special events committee has suggested that an alternative site be considered.  In fact, in an attempt to accommodate the group, City Hall, site of many community festivals, was offered as an alternative site. Nevertheless, although the site originally proposed for the demonstration presented numerous safety concerns, the committee was willing to take steps to accommodate the event if certain steps could be taken by the organizers of the event to assure safety for everyone involved.

 

At the time the attached news release from the city was issued this morning, we had not heard back from the organizers of the event. We since have had several discussions with the organizers and it is our understanding that an alternative site has indeed been secured.  You can contact the organizers of the event for the final location.

 

There are a few things that need to be made clear.  First, Rey Gonzales, one of the members of the city’s special events committee,  is a good man and dedicated public servant that works very hard every day to make our city a great place to live.  He is not trying to stop the tea party, and from my understanding has worked hard to accomodate the organizers.  Second, our city functions with a Council-Manager form of government.  As such, the mayor is not responsible for running the city on a day-to-day basis, and I have no authority to try to stop a function like the tea party.  Third, a number of people have e-mailed nasty comments about our city and our city government--Burleson is a great place to live, work, learn and play.  The members of our City Council and staff are concerned with one thing only--doing what's right for our citizens.  If you come to Burleson I think you will agree it's a great place, and I hope you spend some time in some of our great stores and restaurants--you might want to check out our "Old Town" area.

 

By the way, I have read and studied our Constitution--I've even taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend it.  I take that oath very seriously.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ken Shetter

Mayor of Burleson, Texas

Just thought you should know...

Respectfully,
Dennis Kirkland
twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

House Bill 45

Here is an email that I received from a friend of mine:

Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45 introduced into the House. 

This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009.

We just learned yesterday about this on the Peter Boyles radio program. 

Even gun shop owners didn't know about this because it is flying under the radar.

To find out about this - go to any government website and type in HR 45 or Google HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009. You will get all the information.

Basically this would make it illegal to own a firearm - any rifle with a clip or ANY pistol unless:

•It is registered

•You are fingerprinted

•You supply a current Driver's License

•You supply your Social Security #

•You will submit to a physical & mental evaluation at any time of their choosing

•Each update - change or ownership through private or public sale must be reported and costs $25 - Failure to do so you automatically lose the right to own a firearm and are subject up to a year in jail.

•There is a child provision clause on page 16 section 305 stating a child-access provision. Gun must be locked and inaccessible to any child under 18. 

They would have the right to come and inspect that you are storing your gun safely away from accessibility to children and fine is punishable for up to 5 yrs. in prison.

If you think this is a joke - go to the website and take your pick of many options to read this. It is long and lengthy. But, more and more people are becoming aware of this. Pass the word along. Any hunters in your family - pass this along.

Peter Boyles is on this and having guests. Listen to him on KHOW 630 a.m. in the morning. He suggests the best way to fight this is to tell all your friends about it and "spring into action". Also he suggests we all join a pro-gun group like the Colorado Rifle Association, hunting associations, gun clubs and especially the NRA.

This is just a "termite" approach to complete confiscation of guns and disarming of our society to the point we have no defense - chip away a little here and there until the goal is accomplished before anyone realizes it.

This is one to act on whether you own a gun or not.

If you take my gun, only the criminal will have one to use against me. HR 45 only makes me/us less safe. After working with convicts for 26 years I know this bill, if passed, would make them happy and in less danger from their victims.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/show

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-45

Please... copy and send this out to EVERYONE in the USA ...

Respectfully,
twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

Last night my wife's dog Samson was hit by a truck and had to be put down.  We got Samson from a shelter a couple of years ago saving him from the needle.  He is best decribed as large, goofy, and lovable with a head the size of a Volkswagen.  

 

Posted via web from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

Old Ultimate Bootdisk 4 Windows?

I keep about 10 of theses in my office to help with every thing form virus/spyware removal to re-imaging full labs and I have recently ran into a problem with Avira's AntiVir program not updating correctly. It seems this program all though free, requires a licence file(hbedv.key) to update the virus def. file. Here is a link to the updated .key file

http://dlce.antivir.com/down/windows/hbedv.key

Next I had a problem with downloading the update multiple times in the same room (this this is several Megs). To fix this, I found the update link to get the file it downloads:

http://dl1.avgate.net/down/vdf/ivdf_fusebundle_nt_en.zip

Finally, I started having problem with Antivir grumbling that the virus def file was corrupt and found that the defs were for a newer version of the program. Here is another work around:

Prep Work:

Download the current version of Antivr to a clean computer. 

Use 7zip to extract the .exe file to a folder 

Rename the basic folder to antir (optional) and copy to a USB drive or a network drive

Download the update file above

Boot up a computer with UBD4wWin disk and use the Antivir on the USB drive.

BTW here is the update to the Adaware program on the Disk:

http://download.lavasoft.com/public/defs.zip

This stuff works in a pinch, but I would advise you to update you UBD4Win iso soon. And for those that are scratching your heads asking what I am talking about, go here:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

No Taskbar, Desktop Icons... Nothing.

Haven't seen this problem before...
A computer had a few viruses and some spyware, but when I removed them the computer starts up and can not start explorer.exe.  I could get to a blank desktop, but there was not a start menu or desktop icons. I had to do CTRL-ALT-DELTET to get to the task manager and run anything.  I was able to get to every thing I needed except explorer.exe which would give me an error about not being able to find it - DANG. 

I ran all the fixes I could find an still was not able to get it to work. in desperation I tried the following and both worked but I would suggest the second method:

Method 1:

First, go to c:\windows and rename explorer.exe to zexplorer.exe and try to launch it. If you get your desktop back, then go to regedit and change 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon  to zexplorer.exe

This would work but I was not comfortable in having to change the file names to get it to work.

Method 2:

Open regedit and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe then restart the computer.

 Explorer.exe should start up when your computer comes back up.  

Of course before doing either of these, you need to make sure that you have removed all viruses and spyware from your computer.

Good luck!

twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

I am an Idiot

 OK, so I spent a couple hours fiddling with a project that should have taken a few minutes.  The kid got a PSP for for Christmas and wanted to put some music on it.  No problem... Export her iTunes Playlist and use a script to copy the files...hmmm if was only that easy.  I have a batch file that will read a txt file and use it as an input for something else that works great, but I did not realize that the (whatever.txt) line had to be different for xcopy. Also, the txt file contained "fullpath\2\whatever.ext" one on each line and in quotes.  Here is what I finially had to do to get it to work:

FOR /f "tokens=*" %%X IN ('type fullpath\2\whaterver.txt') DO (XCOPY %%X dest\ /y)

The TYPE statement is manditory! It will not work with out it.
Have fun!
-
Respectfully,
twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish