Florida Adventure
...Wanda and I flew to Tampa, FL, to visit with some dear friends in Lakeland. Frank and Lucia are naturalized citizens and yet also citizens of their native country, Nicaragua. They have many examples of pottery from the local natives. All of them have intricate designs and earthy colors.
...We visited Cypress Gardens. The butterfly house was the most unique exhibit. Butterflies are allowed to fly around and eat in a natural habitat.
...We visited local lakes and spotted three species of birds, which we haven't identified before: mute swans, black swans, and wood storks. They were frequent but not abundant.
...We did not take time to visit the Orlando attractions. Our purpose was to make contact with our friends again. Lucia was an exchange student at Forgan High School over 30 years ago. She stayed with Don, Wanda, and their daughter, Donna during her school years and early college years.
...We are praying about a missions trip to Nicaragua in a few years. There is a need for the gospel, medicine, and supplies. There is a local clinic through which we could operate a mission effort. Those of you readers who know the power of prayer are encouraged to join us in this prayerful consideration. We need wisdom; we will also need courage to go to a country foreign to us by culture, language, and religion.

Pre-flight Thoughts
...Before we leave tomorrow for Wichita on the way to Tampa, FL, by Northwest Airlines, I have a few thoughts:
...Oklahoma University football was robbed by the two bad official calls during their game with Oregon University. The errors were not corrected by instant replay, and the replay official who was an alumnus of Oregon U. should be removed permanently.
...The Muslim response to the Pope's speech just shows the violent behavior that the person quoted had observed. Moderate Muslims should reject their violent counterparts, even as Christians should do the same. Jesus Christ came to bring peace not strife.
...The newest regulations enforced by the American Red Cross at the blood drives will result in reduced supplies of blood. After generously giving my blood and answering 48 personal questions, I had to return on a 22-mile round trip to personally correct one of the answers that was incorrectly keyed into the computer by one of the workers. I was not allowed to correct the answer via telephone because of an FDA regulation that the local bank followed. That regulation is ridiculous considering that each person who donates answers the personal questions without any proof of their validity. If they can accept my answer face-to-face, they are just as valid via telephone. They have now caused me to re-evaluate the whole process of trying to help someone else by donating my blood. In the name of protecting blood supplies, the federal government is once again enacting mounds of paperwork for these volunteers. Only when blood supplies become dangerously low will they then realize the error of their heavyhanded techniques.
...Wanda is taking her first airplane flight ever on Thursday morning, so be praying for a smooth trip for her benefit, and mine. I get very nauseous, except for that new medication that I have found that works wonders.
...We'll get to Wichita in time to attend the Powerlines service on Wednesday evening. We already enjoy the DVD presentation of the Saturday/Sunday service.

Illegal Wiretaps to be Made "Legal"
...In defiance of rulings by the US Supreme Court and several lower courts, the Executive Branch of government is asking the Legislative branch to pass a bill to make illegal wiretaps "legal." The bill is sponsored by Arlen Specter who wants just a voice vote, so there won't be any record of how the congressmen voted on the issue (cowards)!
...First let me say that I am a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush both times,...but I was also a resident of Texas when he was Governor and I am alarmed by one area of weakness in his governing style. He suggests that the Legislature pass laws that have already been ruled to be unconstitutional or are already considered illegal. He believes that his Executive powers supersede those of the Courts, and he states that he will see you in court to challenge the validity of the legislative acts that he proposes.
...It was reprehensible when I lived in Texas, and also now as I live in the US in general. Now he is wanting to adjust the statements of the Geneva Convention to allow our professionals (called FBI and CIA) to interrogate prisoners using methods that the Geneva Convention implies would violate prisoner's rights. He seems fine with the concept that our own military personnel may one day be subjected to similar techniques if they are captured.
...Thankfully, even some of his own party are taking a stand against such blatant abuse of power. I wondered what a second-term president could do, knowing that he cannot lose the next election. It is time for those of both parties in the Legislature to exercise their obligation to provide checks and balances in our US Government. They are not to be the puppets of the Executive Branch or the Judicial Branch.
...The last term of a President is usually spent doing things to leave a lasting legacy. I can already see that the current President will not need to build a memorial building; it already exists, the Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Racial Segregation?

...Why is it that a popular primetime TV show can segregate its contestants into ethnic groups and not be considered racist? The viewers need to answer this indecency with disdain and turn to another show. Indeed, I will not watch a show that will cause the competition between races, which will spawn additional stereotypes and racial thoughts. What was the network thinking in allowing such tripe to air?

...Is it the same network that promotes homosexual preferences rather than allow those who are afflicted with the tendency to maintain a celibate lifestyle. To act upon their feelings is a violation of God's laws.

...When a popular sports personality made a reference to differences in football athletes based upon the interbreeding of racial ancestry, he was summarily fired. Perhaps, the same thing should happen to those in authority who are allowing such racially-motivated competition to be publicized.

Was the Pope Right?
...when he quoted a historical source about Islam pushing their faith through violence? Well, what was the Islamic reaction to his speech? Threats of violence against him. Even the Qu'ran states that it is right to kill Christians and Jews. One way to propagate their faith is to remove those who are considered "infidels." This is offensive to those of us who live in a country where opposing religious views live in peace; guaranteed free exercise to practice an individual's religion, if it does not violate any other legal rights, such as the right to privacy or the protection of nonviolence.
...Why is it that any time a person freely expresses a viewpoint about Islam, the Islamic world retaliates? Salmon Rushdie had to hide from public view after his expose' of the religion in which he was reared.
...Would there have been as much outrage if the pope had used his speech to encourage Catholics to force their beliefs upon the world?
...It is difficult to realize that other governments are not as tolerant of free speech as ours.

Steve Wouldn't Want Retaliation
...The tragic death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, who was speared by the barb of a sting ray, is causing some people to retaliate against all sting rays, but Steve wouldn't have wanted creatures killed for spite. He was a conservationist and zoo keeper. He would want all sting rays to live normal lives.
...Anger is one of the steps of the mourning process, but it is never right to take it out on others, even if they are just animals.

OKC Trip Was Eyeopener
...It was good to be able to make a trip to Moore, OK, and return all in one day yesterday. We visited with Wanda's second oldest son, Randy, his wife, Debbie, and his son, Jarrod, who has a wife, Jennifer, and two sons, James and Ryan. Wanda loves to spend time with her greatgrandsons and she really enjoyed the visit.
...I learned that gasoline prices have really plummeted in the past week. We bought a few gallons in Moore for $2.219 per gallon. Even in Forgan, the price has dropped from $3.06 to $2.40 in the past two weeks. Now the drop in the price of oil doesn't explain all of that, so the increases were also not consistent with the increases in the price of crude oil. Something else is in the works at the oil companies; I suspect, rising inventories of refined gasoline, while demand has slowed. People really can conserve fuel is the incentive is high enough.
...The shortages during the Carter administration caused an increase in the number of economical vehicles produced and driven. This current uncertainty may do the same.
...While prices are lower, we are going to fly to Tampa, FL, to visit an exchange student who lived with Wanda during two of her high school years. She is from Nicaragua, so I hope to learn a little conversational Spanish language.

Surf's Up...or is it Serve's Up?
...Okay, so the best way to invent a new game is take two games and hybridize them: say take a beach volleyball court made of loose sand and play tennis with tennis ball and racquets, but with volleyball-type rules. What would you have? Beach Tennis, the hottest new game by the water.

...Now Andre Agassi can come out of retirement and play tennis on the beach. He would love the relaxed standards of dress code.

...I guess those of us who live in landlocked states will have to come up with lakeside tennis, or sandstorm tennis, or gennis (golf played with a tennis racquet and ball). It still reminds me of Lance's game called gockey (roller hockey using a golf club and golf ball played in the hallway of your parent's house.)

Scientists Research Using Altered T-Cells to Fight Cancer
...In an article for Nature, scientists list possible uses for genetically-altered T-cells extracted from a patient's body, altered, and reintroduced into the patient's body to attack cancer cells.

...My sister-in-law is in the process of building up her body for the extraction of her T-cells to fight her myeloma.

Global Warming

...We can't deny that the climate temperatures are increasing and the effects are being observed. The cause appears to be increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, from increased production of it in manufacturing and transportation, and reduced amounts of green plants to convert it back to oxygen.

...The effects are coming slowly enough that we can adapt, but it probably means in time that inhabitants of coastal regions worldwide will have to migrate inland, putting a greater density of population on the remaing above-water land.

...The disastrous effects may reduce populations and lessen the production of carbon dioxide to some extent. That will tend to make a correction to the global warming, but again it will occur slowly as all climate changes do.

...Too much correction can lead to global cooling and the resultant effects.

...The effects are coming slowly enough that we who are alive now may not live to see the deleterious effects, but our generations will. We must make changes now to correct our ecosystem.