About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new
constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the
University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the
Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot
exist as a permanent form of government."

"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that
voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public
treasury."

"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the
candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the
result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the
beginning of history, has been about 200 years."

"During those 200 y ears, those nations always progressed through
the following sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St.
Paul, Minnesota,points out someinteresting facts concerning the 2000
Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush : 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory
Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great
country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in
government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government
welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of
democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already
having
reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million
criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say
goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

COOL STORY of car time capsuled away 50 years ago......

Hy-Vee's triathlon was yesterday, so was father’s day, so was the 35th time Austin asked me about death.....

Got imagemagik & php to work on the server, over weekend. Still have some modifications for the SQL server, then tight down security. Then get the website up and modified.......

FF4 was Fantastic! It wasn't bad...the kids liked it. It was campy but its suppose to be. I have to get one of those new Dodges that was in the film! ....and maybe a silver surf board.

Should I be concerned I received a text from a girl at Blazing Saddles at 11:30pm on a Sunday?....nice thing is I was sleeping...so yes I got more beauty sleep last night....maybe I nee a chart for this?

It better rain today as I left my bike at home......otherwise, something/someone is going to get clobbered.

Golden Circle Games Wednesday.....Dave are you bringing adult sodas in again this year?....it's not that I won't have any tickets....

This coming weekend is the Big Country Bash. Looks like Austin is going to play in a tournament Saturday in Winterset.

Deep Thought for the Day: Here's a good thing to do if you go to a party and you don't know anybody: First, take out the garbage. Then go around and collect any extra garbage that people might have, like a crumpled-up napkin, and take that out too. Pretty soon people will want to meet the busy garbage guy.

Working away here trying to get the SQL server configured correctly and Imagimagik to work for the model site...also listening to The Beatle Brunch...Its also Pauls B'day tomorrow.

A quite night for the boys and I on Friday. Saturday I cleaned and made the boys do some landscaping....I need a month away from work, to get stuff done.....I need daylight!!!!

Another long night with little sleep...going away party(Scott),B'day party(Dawn), then met up with Temp and hung out at Kellys(New owners-Eric is a cool guy) for a while. On our way out we were dragged back in till close....then Temps until 4.....

...and of course little sleep as I got the boys this morning at 9...they are currently playing with legos...keeping quite...NICE!!!

We're planning on seeing FF4:ROTSS this afternoon and dinner at my parents....

Later

Didn't quite make golf yesterday.....

Baseball:
Had the closing ceremonies for baseball last night. Austin was elected to the All-Star team. Blaise received a metal for participation and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Andy Arndt from our team recieved the Shepard(SP) award last night. I actually was overwhelmed with emotion. Not sure why it bothered me. The award is given to a player that displays great sportsmanship, etc...during the season. Andy is a great kid...I've always liked him. He's played on Austin's team almost every year. Shepard was a 11 year-old that died from being struck in the throat with a baseball when I was playing. I think he was a year older than I. I was playing for Milo at the time. When it happened, mom become more paranoid then normal.....

After the ceremonies went to Pierce's for a beer with the rest of the board and Curt C had his bulldog there, it sounds like it had been smoking for 50 years. Hacking and coughing.....poor dog...actually poor us for having to listen to it...

Softball:
Team Marcus had our last game last night, I didn't make it because of baseball commitments. From what I got off the phone last night...we rock!! We went undefeated again. Since I started playign co-ed out at Raccoon River we haven't lost very many games...maybe 2-3 over the last 5 years?? maybe more...anyway....Mark and Andy were trashed when I talked to them last night from Charlies and excited.....It was all for MARCUS

I did get 5-6 hours asleep...much needed...a few more hours would have been perfect.

Weekend:
Have the kids most of the weekend...try to get some stuff done at home. Bail some hay. I don't have them Sat night though....so I'm sure I'll find something to do...already have been asked to go to 2 weddings....
Thought about taking the boys to Jester Park tonight. Travis, Kyle, etc. are camping there. Depends on Blaise when I pick him up from day care. He switched daycares Monday and doesn't take a nap here...he has been very delirous later in the day because of that.....

Deep Thought for the Day: I think that what makes Tarzan so cool is he is was Lord of the Apes. Tarzan Lord of the Apes sounds cool. I mean if he had been Tarzan President of the Lemurs or Tarzan Mayor of the Spider Monkeys he wouldn't have been cool.

Everyone have a great weekend...weather should be great!!!!!

Last night Blaise had his last baseball game. He was in a better mood, then the night before. He started a new daycare on Monday, which he loves…it’s affiliated with the school, since he starts Kindergarten in the fall. Unfortunately he doesn’t take naps now…he was very delirious on Tuesday night…poor kid.

Talked to Mark D(Hig) last night, he stopped in Methodist to see Sergey….Mark hadn’t realized how bad Sergey actually was until he saw him….He’s having surgery today to put rods in his back to help stabilize his vertebrae. Mark thought he looked bad, but he would hate to see the other rider. Sergey was coherent…if fact after the accident he insisted not to have his wife bothered until she was done taking her medical boards. If you look at the video on KCCI and watch it slow you will see that a bicycle seat is jammed up inside the tire well.

I’m exhausted today….eyes don’t want to stay open….I blame all of this on ANDY…..

After the game last night went home grabbed my car, golf clubs, fed the dogs and headed out to West Grand Golf’s driving range. I was talking to Stacy yesterday and she reminded me I was suppose to play golf with Stephanie at Copper Creek today. Haven’t heard anything from Step for weeks, guess I’m just suppose to remember.…that’s not always a good idea. My golf game looked rustier then ever....I had a few good hits, but I also sent a lot of divots...but it should help for today. Probably hit 6 golf balls at the guy in the cart, only got him with one.

I was lying awake and thinking that if was the lead singer in a garage band what the band would be called. I was thinking that "Dead Chickens" sounded like a good band name. Then one day I could see a marquee that said "LIVE Dead Chickens 1 night only!"

So today golf, closing ceremonies for baseball at 8ish, party at Jeff’s after the ceremonies…maybe not on the last one.

Trying to get the new server up for the LA models.....waiting on Brian to get the php functioning correctly.....

Deep Thought of the Day: If you say to someone that you can jump over that fence and they come back with, “I bet that fence was expensive to build”. You may want to walk the other way

Have a great day!