I knew it.....!
Research reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology on Tuesday showed that a tight necktie elevates blood pressure in the eye, raising the risks of developing glaucoma. I would add that my studies show that it also adds to the risk of tinnitus...or ringing in the ears. My eyes aren't the greatest anymore and I have had tinnitus for a decade, at least that's what I think they said.....I couldn't hear the doctor all that well.

Thankfully we here in Midland Texas were well aware of the deadly necktie syndrome years ago. We don't wear ties here except to church and most funerals. Those who do wear ties [along with the dreaded "Suit"] are undesireable types such as lawyers, bankers and people from big cities like New York. This informal dress code has it's advantages in that if we see someone approaching on the street wearing a necktie, we can be fairly certain that they fall into the "undesireable class" mentioned above and we can do our utmost to avoid them. It works fairly well, except when cornered in small confined places like offices or restaurants.

Having gone tieless for over 12 years now, I think I may have saved my eyesight, but the ringing in my ears [actually more of a whining, hissing sound] is permanent and has caused me much personal consternation. The doctors told me that most likely the tinnitus was caused by my years in the Army....of firing large weapons and having explosions and helicopter transmissions in close proximity to my ears.

But now I know better. It was the neckties. I'm not going to live like this anymore without some sort of financial compensation. Most of my assorted ties were nondescript brands of which the makers are probably now defunct. But......my two favorites, which I wore often were original Jerry Garcia's . I'll bet the Grateful Dead made a ton of money and being the socially responsible band that they are they probably have a permenant fund set up to take care of tinnitus victims like me.

Thanks for the Memories...
Bob Hope is gone and there won't be another like him. He was the consumate entertainer, movie star and luminary whose career spanned nine decades in two different centuries and progressed from the vaudeville stage, through radio, to film and then into television. A man who was born when Teddy Roosevelt was President and whose lifetime lasted through 17 different Presidents, but who was always on top of current events in order to keep his act fresh.

But as much as he will be remembered as the biggest name entertainer in the world, there are countless millions who will remember him for his work in bringing some small joy to our troops in every conceivable locale in the world. The photo of Joey Heatherton, above, was taken by my friend Joe Galloway at the Bob Hope Christmas show in An Khe, Vietnam in 1965, one of the first of very many shows Mr. Hope brought to Vietnam. Veterans will always have a soft spot in their hearts for this man who brought one small little bit of home to servicemen far from friends and loved ones. So much so that a special Veterans Bob Hope Memorial is being built in San Diego to show our gratitude. It's the least we can do.....thanks Bob, for the memories!

Lance....!
Congratulations to fellow Texan Lance, "chamois in his Lycra pants" Armstrong in his record tieing fifth win in the Tour de France! A magnificent performance in a sport that is little appreciated in his home country, and is one of the most grueling events in all of sports.

The beauty of this triumph beyond the sporting aspect is the severe pain it must cause the French, for which the Tour is a national obsession, in watching an American rider dominate. Lance rides for the U.S. Postal Service team, and I count the small amount of tax dollars outlayed on supporting the team some of the best money spent if it makes the Frogs choke on a big lump of rotten limburger cheese!

How It All Began - Conservatives And Liberals...
A great piece by Fritz Pettyjohn of Stanford Ca. Forwarded by email by an old Huey driver...

The division of the human family into its two distinct branches, liberals and conservatives, occurred some 20,000 years ago. Until then all humans coexisted as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. A thousand generations ago, in the pivotal event of societal evolution, beer was invented. This epochal innovation was both the foundation of modern civilization and the occasion of the great bifurcation of humanity into its two distinct subgroups.

Once beer was discovered, our prehistoric forebearers decided it was time to settle down. Making beer required grain, and securing a steady supply of it ordained the invention of agriculture. After that was accomplished, ancient man quickly, and unfairly, consigned actual cultivation to women. Men couldn't just run off, willy-nilly, however. Neither the glass bottle nor the aluminum can had yet been invented, so it was necessary to stick pretty close to home, and the brewery. This left our male ancestors with a lot of time on their hands, and led to the division of the species, which persists to this day. Some men tried to conserve remnants of the old way of life (hence the term "conservative") by spending their days in the open field in the dangerous pursuit of big game animals. At night they would roast their prey at a big barbecue, and afterwards sat around the fire drinking beer, and telling off color jokes.

Other, more timid, souls stayed closer to home. They are responsible for the domestication of cats and the invention of group therapy. Mostly, they sat around worrying about how life wasn't fair and concocting elaborate schemes to "liberate" themselves from inequity (thus their designation as "liberals"). In the evening they gathered around their fire, nibbling on fruit and nuts, sharing their innermost feelings. Today some liberals try to pretend they're really sort of conservative, and sometimes succeed in confusing people. The following are a few tips to use in distinguishing the two types.

By definition liberals believe in big government and high taxes. Life is unfair and the government is there to do something about it. Most people are too stupid to spend untaxed income wisely, they say, and high taxes allow liberals in government to do a better job of it. Conservatives don't like government, and, aside from the military, wish it would just go away. They hate taxes, regulations, speed limits, and small cars. Typical conservatives are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and, up there with the Big Man in the Sky, the incomparable John Wayne. Typical liberals are Dustin Hoffman, Shirley McLaine, Pee Wee Herman, Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, Ted Turner and his former wife, the traitor Jane Fonda.

All conservatives drink beer. American beer. Some liberals like imported beer, but most prefer white wine or foreign water from a bottle. Liberals like to drive Volvos and Saabs because they're made in socialist Sweden. They like to eat weird food because it's un-American. Your basic conservative vehicle, especially in Texas, is the Chevy Suburban. It's big, it's American, it's four wheel drive, and it sucks up the gas. Conservatives eat beef, which they (surprise!) like to barbecue. Big game hunters are conservative.

Interior decorators are liberal. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule in baseball because it wasn't "fair" to make the poor pitcher take his turn at bat. Conservatives, inspired by a remark of the legendary Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert, believe quarterbacks should be required to wear skirts, so they can more easily be distinguished from real football players. James Brown and Ray Charles are conservatives. Michael Jackson and Milli Vanilli are liberals. Most social workers, personal injury lawyers, journalists, and group therapists are liberals. Most ranchers, loggers, professional soldiers, and oil field workers are conservatives.

Liberal jurors distrust the prosecutors and police. Conservatives figure the defendant must be guilty or he wouldn't be on trial. Most conservatives not only believe in the death penalty, they would cheerfully implement it, personally, if called upon to do so. Liberals think capital punishment is a barbaric relic, and unfair to boot. Liberals believe Europeans are, generally speaking, far more enlightened than Americans. Conservatives think they're basically decadent, as evidenced by their complete absence in wars. Typical conservative movies are "Raising Arizona", "Patton", and "Conan the Barbarian". Typical liberal movies are "Prince of Tides," "Last Tango in Paris," and "The Big Chill."

The quintessential liberal is the handicapper, the person who decides how much extra weight to saddle the faster horses with in order to make the race "fair". The American cowboy, of course, is your basic, full bore conservative. A hundred years ago an Englishman in South Dakota was trying to find the owner of a huge cattle ranch. He rode up to one of the ranch hands and asked, "Excuse me, but could you tell me where to find your Master?" To which the cowboy replied, "That sumbitch hasn't been born yet."

By Fritz Pettyjohn

Gotta' love those Cubans...

Ever inventive, a truckload of Cuban emmigrants was stopped on the high seas Wednesday as they attempted to drive their '51 Chevy truck across the Straits of Florida. The "Boruck" [boat/truck] was held up on a makeshift pontoon with a marine propeller attached to the drive train. Only 40 miles short of their objective of Miami, the Coast Guard deemed their drive a little too risky and took them into custody. I only wish that I had been on the Cutter that spotted the "ship". "Sir, pick-up truck off the port bow"!

General Motors engineers are hoping to capitalize on this new technology for an off-off road sport utility vehicle tentatively named the Chevrolet Mallard. I hope their vehicle ends up on EbayŠ.

In Taos...
Fine and generous friends are one of life's blessings, and you can't get much more generous than having friends that lend you their gorgeous home in Taos. That is what Donnie and Karen Michael did for Julie and me this past week, and what a relief it was leaving the hot dusty flatlands of W. Texas for the cool, pinon scented mountains of Northern New Mexico.

We drove up the more scenic route through middle New Mexico, on a great road that I love, mostly four lanes of vacant space with mountain views to the West. Instead of going my regular route to Santa Fe, we tried the scenic route up the Mora Valley thru the mountains arriving at Ranchos de Taos where the Michaels fabulous home is. The house sits up on the side of a hill towards the mountains and is just what you would expect of a Taos residence.

We had much planned to do, but an unexpected surprise for me was the Angel Fire Air Show being held across the mountain from Taos. Several CAF aircraft were performing and I got to talk with a pilot I had met before in Midland. Julie and I had a great time, and we each got to have our "little moment" with Julie talking to the young hunks from the Air Force Academy parachute team, and I got my photograph made with Miss New Mexico! Julie also got to "fly" left seat in one of the last remaining Huey Helicopters in service.

While in Taos we had seen signs for a Vietnam Memorial, and we had assumed it was a local memorial. By very good chance the Memorial was right across the highway from the Air Show and was in fact a National Memorial. The site on the side of the mountain is spectacular and the statues and displays are a stirring reminder of the war and it's costs. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to spend time there.

Art and it's history in Taos are something that we are both interested in, so we took almost a whole day visiting the museums, galleries and other art related sites throughout the town. The thriving art culture in Taos started in 1898 when artist Ernest Blumenschein's wagon broke down on the mountain above Taos, and while getting it fixed he fell in love with the light, people and ambience of the place. He soon founded the Taos Society of Artists and it became an important movement in the early 20th century. Mabel Dodge Lujan was a wealthy patron of these artists and other luminaries such as D. H. Lawrence and had them gather often at her house. We visited the Blumenshein house, which is much as he left it in the center of the early art district on Ledoux Street. Nearby is the impressive Harwood Museum which houses many of the Taos Society Artists works including Winter Funeral. Also at the museum was a retrospective of prints by Jasper Johns and a great collection of early colonial New Mexican religous art objects.

Another unexpected highlight for us was the Martinez Hacienda, built around 1804. This restored hacienda was the headquarters for a colonial New Mexican sheep rancher and trader, and was on the Northern boundary of the Spanish empire in America. Built near a lovely stream flowing from the mountains, the hacienda was built to withstand attacks by Comanche Indians, and was completely self sufficient. This National Landmark site has been restored to nearly it's original condition with examples of the the fabrics that they produced for trade with Mexico and every day items that were used in their daily lives. It was also a photographers dream with both Julie and Myself shooting some things that we really liked.

Another side trip was to the historic St. Francis of Assisi cathedral outside of Ranchos de Taos. This 300 year old, picturesque church was the same painted by Georgia O'Keefe in many of her more famous works. Although I have to say I was disappointed that through lack of zoning laws, small commercial buildings [can you say Pizza Shop!] have grown up right on top of the church, surrounding it with clutter. It's just not the same as the last time Georgia, or I, saw it.

We also had a great time just being alone together in the quiet of the house and it's beautiful grounds. But...all good things must end. We decided to come back on the route via Santa Fe through the canyon of the Rio Grande River which Julie had never seen. It is a shock for a Texan seeing this gorgeous, fast flowing, clear mountain river in New Mexico. We are used to a tepid muddy stream that now does not even have enough oomph left to reach the sea.

If you have never been to Northern New Mexico, it is a rare treat. Just don't go when we are there, it's getting too crowded!

The Harwood Museum
The Blumenschein Home
Hacienda de los Martinez
Kit Carson Home
National Vietnam Memorial

To Taos.......
Daily postings will be absent for some days as Julie and I take a break with a trip and photo shoot to Taos, New Mexico. For out of towners, Taos is about an hour north of Santa Fe and sits nestled beneath Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico at 13,161 ft. Taos is also home to what many scholars consider to be the oldest continuously occupied building in North America, the Taos Pueblo.

As anglo settlers began to settle the area, Taos was a center of the fur trade and in fact was the home of Kit Carson. Later as settlement progressed Taos became a favorite haunt for newly arrived artists and the "New Mexico" school of art was founded here. Consquently there are many great museums and galleries in Taos today. We plan to hit a few.

Today, Taos has grown a bit from my earliest visits, but is still a Mecca for art and photograpy along with some great dining and just sitting and enjoying the cool air laced with pinon pine smoke. We plan to do all these....and possibly more! :>)

Caribbean Visitor......

We always welcome visitors in West Texas, especially one's bearing rain. Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Claudette now sits about 100 miles to the south of Midland, and she's brought some great weather! Mid July weather in Western Texas can be the dog days. They can be unbearably hot, deathly still and without a single cloud in the sky for weeks on end. Thanks to Claudette we have a 86°, a strong breeze and thunder showers in the area.

We are not total strangers to used up hurricanes, but usually we receive the benefit of Mexican storms coming in from the Pacific. Being so far west, we actually are almost as close to the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of California as we are to the Atlantic's Gulf of Mexico. Claudette was a wimpish storm as far as hurricanes go, but she is long lived and is bringing great rains to areas of Texas that really need it. Perhaps the Rio Grande will start flowing again! Yes, for out of towners, this great river virtually stopped flowing and for several years now, it has not even been able to muster up the spit to make it all the way to the sea.....it just stops or rather, just peters out in southern Texas.

What made me chose this topic this fine evening was a thought I had as I was walking the Big Gold Dog and watching the moving bands of thunder storms in the area. It occured to me what an amazing thing this is....this storm that had it's origins in the Caribbean thousands of miles away over lush tropical isles, raining itself out over hundreds of square miles in the deserts of the Southwest. It makes one feel rather small. I think that this is a good feeling sometimes.

Down Home....
One of the real advantages of living in a smallish city is that there are some things that just never change. There are those places surviving that will take you back many decades both with the decor and in the patron's encountered there. One of those places in downtown Midland, Texas is Johnnie's Barbecue. Johnnies is essentially as it was the first time I walked in the door in 1960. The layout is the same, the chairs have been inhabitants for 50 years as have some of the patrons and of course, there is Johnnie. I can't remember a time that I have entered the joint that Johnnie wasn't been behind the serving area, as well as a few of his employees who have earned 50 year service pins.

Johnnie's constitutes a time warp. There just aren't too many places in this modern world that one can reenter his youthful haunts to find things completely unchanged. Where else can you sit in a chair you probably sat in 42 years ago with some of the same diners sitting opposite you? A place to not only remember your past, but to participate in it. Despite comments about the dubious cleanliness of the place, the methods of potato salad production, and the smoke from the septigenariuns cigarettes, Johnnies has a charm to old time West Texans that is unmistakeable. Johnnies, as mentioned, is downtown where the oil business is. Johnnies has been synonomous with lunch to old time oilmen since the 1950's the way "The Spot", several blocks over, is to breakfast and the way the much lamented and now defunct 007 Club was to strong drink and riotous living. These places are where the deals were made in the oil business. Some of the men you encounter at Johnnies today became fabulously weathly, some went broke, some did both.

Occasionally when Julie and I have lunch, I'll want to go to Johnnie's as we did today. Julie complains about having to wash the smoke out of her clothes after the meal, but the food is pretty good...standard barbecue fare. More than the food though is just the opportunity for me to travel back in time and I suppose to reconnect to my roots.

And there is always the opportunity to see a friend not recently seen. Today it was George O'Brien. George lives somewhat across the street from my folks and is someone I've always liked, a rather quiet, modest guy who is also in the oil business. He, his wife Sandy and I walk our dogs on the same route some days. George is a friendly, regular sort of guy except for one small thing...he won the Medal of Honor in Korea. You never know who'll you'll run into at Johnnie's.

Gone West.......
Aviation can be a dangerous business, especially when flying aircraft that are 60+ years old. We at the Commemorative Air Force, the CAF, have lost another aircraft and her crew. Our Heinkel He-111 went down in Cheyenne, Wyoming this week after taking off from Midland on it's way to an airshow in Montana. Apparently an engine was lost on final approach into the airfield in Cheyenne. Two of our pilots lost their lives and the aircraft is a total loss.

Of course first and foremost, condolensences go to the families of these fine men. It is heartbreaking to lose anyone in a tragic accident of this kind. I know first hand. I lost two good friends in separate aviation crashes two years ago...within one month of each other and flying the same type of vintage aircraft. It'a hard to believe that these friends are gone, and both skilled and experienced pilots. But I can state with certainty, that these men were proud of what they were doing and felt a great degree of privelage in flying this aircraft.

Equally distressing is the loss of this aircraft, the only operational and flying HE-111 in existance. The HE-111 was one of the two principle types of German bombers involved in the Battle of Britain and is a symbol of that contest, along with the English Spitfire and German ME-109. This particular Heinkel, which I photographed [above] just last year, was built in Spain not long after the Spanish civil war, and was rumored to have been Francisco Franco's personal aircraft.

We at the CAF have had discussions about flying these "one of a kind" aircraft, started seven years ago after our B-26 Marauder went down with all hands aboard here in Midland. The Marauder was the sole remaining aircraft of it's type also. Our charter has as one of it's principles "to preserve in flying condition.....". It would be a tough decision to ground any of these rare birds. I don't know how I would vote, I do love the sound of those big engines as they pass proudly overhead.

Supporting our Veterans.....??
One of the great things about America is that we can support our government, and in particular our President, but still be vociferously opposed to some of the things they [He] does. I think President G.W. Bush is doing a magnificent job on many fronts including strong action against terrorism and those who oppose our way of life.

However......there are some things that gall me and I don't mind telling the public that I think some mindsets and priorities need to be changed in the Republican led government. Today's focus is on the treatment of our Veterans and the fulfillment of our promises to Vets in trade for their service in harms way. Almost every Republican candidate in the State of Texas courts the Veteran's vote, promising in an orgy of patriotic flag waving to "honor our Vets" and "take care of our Vets". We recently elected a new congressman, who during a public TV debate not more than two months ago intoned, "we need to honor our commitment to the Veterans". OK Randy, here's your chance.

As pointed out in Joe Galloway's syndicated column, to put it succinctly, Vets are once again being given the short shaft. Veterans who complete a military career are promised a retirement stipend based upon their years of service and pay grade upon retirement. That is unless the veteran is disabled. Then the Vet will have his retirement pay deducted by the amount of his diability pay. This means that a Vet who is judged to be 100% disabled is entitled to only his disability and his retirement pay is negated. For many this means they take home less money monthly than if they had never been disabled in the service of their country.

For the record most legislators [82%] know this and had intended to rectify this injustice by approving a bill to overturn the military retirement/disability law. That is until now. Now the President's office conjectures that this would cost the budget billions of dollars over the years and is putting pressure on congress to table this bill. The pressure may work, George is a popular President and his wishes have been their commands.

I urge the President to think twice. Veterans are, by and large, a conservative voting group, they are his supporters. But as a Veteran myself, I remind George that this sort of treatment, trading veterans rights for dollars, has been going on for decades and we've about had it! And what does this tell our current troops in the "all volunteer" Army. It's a great career, just don't get seriously wounded!

Hack 'em up.......
Last week's organized "hack-a-thon" involving one hell of a lot of work by the hackers, apparently only created some small degree of mischief. Defacing a few minor websites, knocking some off the web in denial of service attacks but generally small potatos stuff. Oh boy, big fun. Time not well spent.

Now I'm no hacker, I don't have the time nor the skills at this point. But it sure sounds interesting. I have thought for some time now that if I were a hacker I would use my skills for the good of mankind. That good would be knocking scumbag spammers off their digital perches. Slamming them, causing their servers to fry and if I could, blowing up their mobile homes via the Internet, generating fake messages telling them that their Rent-a-Center furniture is being repossesed and in general causing mischief designed to make their lives miserable.

Perhaps there are hackers out there at this very moment carrying out devious plans against these spamming scabs on the butt of humankind, but I never hear about them. And I would really like to. It would give me a vicarious pleasure. So if by some mistake my small site is hacked, here for you dear hacker is an IP address to start in on: 217.107.216.18. They're home, I just heard from them tonight.

Go to the Spews Spam Report and read all about these criminals. Perhaps you'll recognize some of the fine products they want to sell you. From fake Viagra to fake sex.....they stock it all. Also notice that, as usual, the spamsite host declines to do anything about these vagrants. Where is a good hacker when we need one?

Hillbillies Revisited...
I kept looking at the picture of Buddy Ebsen as Uncle Jed posted yesterday and I thought....wow what a great show, I wish we had something like that now. Younger readers will think, "yeah, right Dude, people back in the early 60's must have been real rubes to have watched that hick show"! Simple people in simple times who would lap up anything and call it entertainment.

Not so! During the first years that TBH's was on the air we had some of the most difficult events to handle that the 20th century offered. We had a President assasinated and we thought anarchy might reign, the democratic system could collapse. We were within a cat's whisker of a real nuclear war with the Russkies over Cuba, we know only now just how close. When TBH's had been on a few years, we started losing hundreds of young men every month in Vietnam, escalating to 1000's. These were serious and tough times.

And this is the reason that The Beverly Hillbillies was so immensely popular across a wide spectum. Why? Because it was funny and it was really stupid. And.....we laughed and we knew it was really stupid. It was supposed to be stupid and we needed and appreciated stupid. Compare this to the immensely popular show genres of today, the "reality shows". The Discovery Channel has probably five shows based on the "Trading Places" premise: turn a perfectly good room into something belonging in a cheap trailer park. The major networks each seem to have several shows based on "The Bachelor" premise: get people without a real life themselves to believe that two people can actually meet in a staged competition, get married and live happily ever after.

Like The Beverly Hillbillies these shows provide some form of entertainment and are really stupid, but the difference now is that a large sgement of the population doesn't seem to know that they're stupid. So as I set down by the cement pond with a mess of hog jowls and use my 5th grade education to do some 'cypherin', I conclude that I miss shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and that 20 years from now young people will look at Trading Places reruns and think, "What a bunch of pathetic losers people were in 2003.....didn't they have lives of their own, the rubes".

R.I.P.
"Uncle Jed"

Weelll Doggies Uncle Jed, thanks for the memories. Hope you get some relaxation out by the cement pond in the sky with Granny and Ol' Duke! We'll miss ya!

Spam on Rye..

As mentioned previously, Spam is one of my pet peaves. True, it's easy enough to hit the delete button, and by having my own domains with the ability to easily change addresses it's fairly easy to manage and keep the crap to a minimun. But, some still gets through, most recently thanks to Earthlink, who didn't have tight enough security on their mail servers to stop a spam house from sending through an "alphabet attack". For you novices, this involves a spammer hitting a mail server with millions of mail request using computer generated alpha letter combinations and seeing which ones are "bounced" and which are not. The "non-bouncers" are then stored in the scumbags data file for future spamming. So...I'm getting a few spam sandwiches to my default generic Earthlink address. Thanks Earthlink!

The real reason I hate Spam is that I just don't like the thought of these morons being able to do this with impunity. Which they are generally able to do because A] it's not against the law, B] they have sophisticated software and C] because the people who could put a dent in it...won't.

I'm not naive enough to think that making Spam illegal will stop it all, but it will provide a legal basis for bringing lawsuits against the scum and make it easier to win MONEY from the spammers...which is all they care about and which will hurt them. It would also allow the legal system to keep track of those offenders who are convicted and start up new spam operations. At present, when a spammer is cut off from his ISP or Internet backbone connection, it is a matter of days before they spring up elsewhere.

The software developed for the spam industry is significant. Just several years ago, I could trackback through the email header and generally tell the IP address and the point of origin of the spam message. Not today. Their software creates fake email headers and shows fake IP addresses as the rule. It does no good to try and trackback. The reply addresses are fake as are the ID message lines. I have a little program which creates fake "bounce" messages, designed to send mail back to spammers announcing that "this is not a good address" and hopefully they would delete my address from their database. This is no longer useful.

There is one source link to the spammers that can still be traced. In order for the spammer to sell you some fake Viagra, he has to have a point of sale...usually a website. Now some of these are "confuscated" web addresses, in other words they are written in various coding that the average person could not decipher in order to report. But through the links I'll provide below you can do this. Many addresses linked on spam are normal Dot.Com addresses. The trick is to find out who is really behind this address. Be forewarned that the owners listed are mostly fake names and addresses commonly now coming from China or Brazil. But, and a big But....what you want to determine is how, what route and backbone server, does the URL get from the spam site to your computer. Sad to say, this is commonly through large well known companies such as Verio, ATT, Cable and Wireless or Verizon who really don't give a crap about your little complaint. Until, hopefully, they get hundreds of thousands or millions of complaints. These are the people who have the power to shut spam sales sites down, by blocking the IP addresses of the offenders. This is why I still send Abuse reports on every piece of spam I receive. If everyone did, perhaps they'd listen.

OK, here are two useful sites to start to chase Spam.

Sam Spade: allows you to do WHOIS searches, i.e. see how owns the site, do a TRACEROUTE to determine where the spam site URL enters the Internet backbone [usually a large well known company 5 or 6 hops up the list]. Allows you to deciper the "confuscated" URL's.

UXN Spam Combat: Here I utilize the Traceroute function and the very important SPEWS refernce. SPEWS keeps track of well known spam operations and can help you figure out the latest. You'll need the numeric IP address for this one. [many Spams are using html formated mail "right click" and use "source" to see the associated URL for the site.]

While using these tools remember: Never send a reply back to a spammer, nor use their "take me off your list" return address. This just confirms that your address is active...! You can send complaints to legitimate ISP's or Backbone providers by using the email address abuse@whomever.net. Always send a copy to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov. They won't act on the complaint but they are providing the statistics on Spam to the Congress [don't laugh, please].

There is some thought that since, hopefully, fewer and fewer people are buying anything from these scum, they will eventually implode. The biggest source of their revenue seems to come from selling spam email lists and spam software to each other. But until that happens, report the scumbags. Good luck and good hunting!

Independence Day...!
God Bless America, land of the Free and Home of the Brave...

And as a reminder that Freedom is Not Free, and why we should remember at what price our liberty is held and what the cost is when we take it for granted, please take the time to view Why we should not forget!

Mysterious Blob.....
Scientists in Chile are studying the remains of a mysterious huge gelatinous creature that has washed ashore on the coast of that South American country. The animal, which was discovered June 23 washed up on a Chilean beach, was described as a 40-foot-long (12-meter) mass of rotting grey flesh that scientists estimated to weigh about 13 tons.

My first thought as to it's identity was this:
Has Michael Moore been reported missing?