Back in 1877 Denver was the site of the recorded first gun duel fought between women. Madames Mattie Silks and Katie Fulton fought a duel with single shot Derringers over a married man they both laid claim to. Neither was his wife. Both followed the general guidelines, paced off their steps, turned and fired. Neither Madame took a hit.
However, Cort Thomson, the man at the center of the dispute was hit. Some versions of the story say that immediately after the smoke cleared the ladies engaged in the mother of all cat fights. Silks won the cat fight. A bloodied and bruised Fulton left on the next stage never to be heard from again.
Silks continued running her business and went on to become the most successful Madame in Denver. Eventually Thomson and Silks married. They had to wait for Thomson's wife to die as she wouldn't give him a divorce. Silks went on to purchase The House of Mirrors at 1942 Market Street.
Mattie Silks lived to be 83, passing away in 1929 at Denver General Hospital. She died from the complications of a broken hip. Her House of Mirrors establishment exists to this day as a bar with a museum to the world's oldest profession upstairs.
This moment of home town heritage was brought to you by Wild West Tech on the History Channel.
References:
Denver History - Mattie Silks
The Jailery - Mattie Silks of Colorado Queen of the Red Light District
Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism.
- Emma Goldman
Slidell, LA - It recently came to my attention lots of folks do not understand who decides elections in this country. The key words for the purpose of this post are "who decides."
When a Democrat speaks to an all Democrat crowd that is called preaching to the choir. Unless that Democrat screws up beyond belief, no one in that room is going to vote for the Republican. If that same Democrat speaks before an all Republican crowd, that is called preaching into the wind. None of them are going to vote for that Democrat no matter what is said.
So there are two substantial groups of people out there that are already decided. Many members of both groups are decided even before the candidate is nominated for the race.
The rest of the electorate is made up of the people that will cast the deciding votes in most US elections. These are the undecided independent voters. In most races neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a numerical majority by themselves. It takes the votes from those people in the middle to push one candidate ahead of another.
This is why most politicians forget their voting records and put on a game face more palatable to the center during election cycles. Of course once they are done with the election, those campaign statements are promptly "refined" to suit their actual mind set.
This post comes from my expressing concerns the Republicans will run Sarah Palin for President in 2012. Many of my conservative friends are appalled at my doubt she is electable.
But there is no escaping the fact Gov. Palin scares the Hell out of a large number of independent voters. Not only that, some of her message doesn't sit all that well with more then a few conservatives.
The 2010 general election promises to send a lot of liberal representatives home. The 2012 presidential election is in the Republican's hands right now. The conservatives quite literally will have to go out of their way to lose it as things stand now. (Based on current approval polls. Looking at the President's programs, projects and ideology, I don't see any change for the better anywhere on the horizon.)
If the conservatives run an extreme candidate like Gov. Palin, there is an excellent chance we will see four more years of Obama's politics. Hopefully conservative voters will see this in the 2012 primaries. What is left of our future is in their hands.
Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.
- W. C. Fields
Tallahassee, FL - The 2000 Presidential election debacle left us with many gifts. The nationally televised statements and actions on everyone's part showed us adults behaving like too many kids in a sandbox. Florida was comedic fodder for years afterwards. We learned the importance of a clear statewide standard, codified in law for what does and does not constitute a vote on punch card or black marker style ballots.
The most disturbing thing to come to light as a result of the 2000 voting mess was how overseas absentee military votes were being handled. After some pushing by veteran's groups, active service support organizations and some of the news media we confirmed that many counties and some states never count the overseas military votes.
Election officials excused this situation saying those ballots were "always late" because they could not be produced and mailed to the voters in time. One idiot stated that those uncounted votes rarely amounted to enough to swing the outcome of an election. He apparently forgot he was addressing a room full of reporters. When pressed by reporters for some proof, he literally said "no more questions" and disappeared never to answer media questions again.
Other elections officials across the country simply refused to confirm or deny that statement saying they didn't keep those kind of statistics. Some were able (brave enough?) to count rejected ballots from overseas addresses and came up with some disturbing results. They found that had those ballots been postmarked and arrived on time roughly a third of local elections and a few national contests would have come out differently .
The media storm surrounding that revelation was incredible. Even Vice President Al Gore's running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, went against the advice of legal teams fighting for Gore in court. Lieberman appeared on national TV and stated without reservation the military votes must be counted. (I always did like him.) Even after the 2000 election, the matter still simmered, unforgotten by military support organizations.
That brought us to the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act)(pdf). This act was crafted over the last few years and signed into law by President Obama. It guarantees that US Service Personnel get a reasonable chance to cast their votes. Part of that law requires state election officials to prepare and mail absentee ballots 45 days prior to the election. That should be more then enough time to get the ballot to the serviceman, fill it out and get it back.
Sounds good, right? Wrong.
State and local officials can request waivers through a loop hole in the law. Right now the exact number of states requesting waivers is unknown. It seems the Administration isn't all that anxious to talk about it.
M. Eric Eversole, the executive director of the Military Voter Protection (MVP) Project and former litigation attorney in the Justice Department's Voting Section, wants to know why military voters are being involuntarily disenfranchised. He and J. Christian Adams accused the Justice Department of encouraging states to use waivers to bypass the MOVE Act.
The accusations prompted Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) to write a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, demanding answers and requesting specific information about how the agency was going to enforce the MOVE Act provision.
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich responded: "The Department of Justice is firmly committed to ensuring that our men and women serving in the uniformed services and living overseas have the opportunity to vote and to have their votes counted. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue."
Yet the Obama administration refuses to release the waiver requests filed by a dozen states and territories claiming an inability to meet the legal deadline. Eversole and 17 members of Congress led by Rep. Robert E. Latta (R-Ohio), sought this information through formal requests. By Eversole's count, nearly one-third of the states have failed to implement one or more of the key provisions of the MOVE Act, with at least 11 states having not yet implemented the 45-day deadline for mailing absentee ballots, and at least five states having not implemented the electronic-delivery requirement under the MOVE Act.
Fox News: Military Voting Rights at Risk
You have to wonder why these bureaucrats are making it so difficult for service personnel to exercise the most fundamental of rights. If anyone should be granted dispensation to get their votes in and counted, it has to be the men and women that chose to join, maybe fight and possibly die to protect the rest of us.
There is no excuse. If the timing and method of your state and local elections doesn't allow enough time for overseas military voting, then they are doing it wrong and need to fix it.
Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.
- W. C. Fields
This afternoon my Friend Hoss Warner moved on to what ever comes next after this life. He fought a battle with leukemia that would have killed anyone else long ago. He did well. But sometimes the cure is worse then the disease. Doctors blew out his immune system to allow for a bone marrow transplant. The transplant was successful and the leukemia in full remission.
But without an immune system, his body was repeatedly infected from many sources. The last time was just too much. His organs shut down.
I got to know Hoss better after he got sick. He and his mother displayed an amazing amount of courage in the face of overwhelming odds. Every time I stopped by to see him, he was always making jokes and smiling. Even when covered head to toe in an itchy rash, he found something about it to poke fun at.
Lesser men would have rolled over and died. Hoss kept up on the business through trade journals and talked eagerly about getting back to the work he loved.
Goodbye Hoss. I hope the other side is peaceful. You certainly earned some rest after the rough ride you drew in this life.
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
- Rabindranath Tagore
As a fan of Penn & Teller's Bullshit it is disappointing to find out the Vatican episode was not included in the 7th season DVD set. Both Showtime and Penn & Teller have been silent on the omission. Even after numerous inquiries, there is still no word on the reason.
The missing episode exposes some major flaws in the way the Catholic Church conducts itself in the areas of condoms vs. AIDS, child molestation by clergy and their interference in government legislation concerning gays and lesbians. Even more troubling is the episode was left out of the DVD collection without explanation.
I would like to think a private organization like the Catholic Church doesn't have veto power over Showtime Entertainment.
The Vatican Episode can be found on these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. They are not work safe.
The Roman Catholic church... carries the immense power of very directly affecting women's lives everywhere by its stand against birth control and abortion.
- Robin Morgan
Blythe, CA - A good friend of mine, former ABC News Producer Karl Zimmerman, posted this video of Charley right after he moved in with us. As most of you know Charley adopted me right after Hurricane Charley. We, the truck engineers, originally called him Transponder the Sat Cat. However ABC reporter Heather Cabot said, "No. His name is Charley."
For your enjoyment and amusement:
He still doesn't like to picked up. 
After numerous network and local appearances, Charley gave up his promising career in television to enter a life of quiet seclusion heading up a household now totaling three other cats.
"That's it! I want my agent on the phone right now! I can't work like this."
- Charley the Hurricane Kitten
This apparently did not publish the first time. Not sure how that happened. But it's here now.
On this day in 1776 our nation was born. The colonists won this nation with blood. They released the people of this new nation from tyranny, outrageous taxes and no representation in government. Our Founding Fathers set out to protect the people from tyranny by their new government. The instrument of this protection is the Constitution of the United States of America.
I think it is good to occasionally remind the general population that our Constitution is designed to limit government and preserve individual freedoms. The Founding Fathers intentionally made changing the Constitution very hard to do. They did this with good reason.
The US Constitution was never designed to be a "living document" subject to change the whims of the current political climate of the time. If you are one of these people claiming the US Constitution is a "living document" in need of some updating, be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
Neither James Madison, for whom this lecture is named, nor any of the other Framers of the Constitution, were oblivious, careless, or otherwise unaware of the words they chose for the document and its Bill of Rights.
- Diane Wood
Toronto, Ontario, CA - Things were much worse then I knew when that last post was made. On this page is a video that puts a much darker face on things. Find the video labeled CTV Toronto Extended: Anarchists Target Yonge. Unfortunately the page is set up in such a way that I cannot directly link the video.
Is this the image they want on their cause what ever that may be? A bunch of thugs destroying private and public property?
Those aren't protesters. Those are criminals and thugs in serious need of a righteous ass kicking. Just watching them made me want to take up arms and defend the property they vandalized. Had any of that been my property I can assure you they would have had a war on their hands. I freely admit the odds of me winning are not all that good. But I would have cracked a few heads before I lost.
That brings us to another question. Where in the Hell were the police? Where was that nifty APC with the water canon and pepper spray options? Why were these self righteous little brats allowed to wander unchecked up Yonge street without so much as one policeman in sight?
I'm not sure which frustrates me more. The protesters or the lack of police action to stop them.
"Was that the Starbucks we stopped at this morning?"
- A reporter in the press center watching these videos.
Well now, lets total up the score so far.
- Scratch two police cars.
- Scratch two news vehicles.
- Add two urine soaked members of the media.
- Scratch a few windows in private vehicles.
- Scratch a dozen or so large windows.
- Add several discharged tear gas canisters.
- Add roughly a hundred gagging, choking, half blind protesters.
- Toss in a few more that were trampled my mounted patrols.
- Finish off the tally with many, many arrests.
It's game on in Toronto.
You have to wonder who is coaching this bunch of twits. If you don't want to be portrayed as worse then the unruly bunch of asshats that you are, the news crews and their accoutrement are hands off.
Have a good 15 minutes, boys and girls. Hope the police record is worth it.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
- William Shakespeare
The Direct Energy Center in Toronto, home of the media center. The fence primarily serves to keep we satellite truck monkeys away from the food and bathrooms.
Toronto, Ontario, CA - World leaders are streaming into Canada for the G8 and G20 summits. I'm just trying to get to the food inside. It will be interesting to see if anything useful comes out this high priced, well hyped get together. So far in years past the only thing to come out of these meetings has been a lot of talk, no action and a few protesters get sent to jail.
Here's a few pictures for your amusement.
The main press room. This is where the press gathers to watch the events from either downtown or Hudson.
This is the set for the Business News Network inside the press center. I'm not certain where that network is based. Since they are working with CTV my guess would be Canada.
This is a book sculpture by Tom Bendtsen of Philadelphia, PA. Not to worry. Bendtsen is a Canadian born and schooled artist now living and teaching in the US. According to the press handout Tom has been working in books since 1994.
And the now infamous "fake lake." There was quite a furor among Canadians when a newspaper erroneously reported that this display promoting Canadian tourism cost $1 Million. (It was actually around $57 Thousand.) Oh yeah, that lake you see in the background is remarkably good HD television through a huge projection system. The fake lake is about six inches deep just beyond the chairs.
One thing is for certain, Canadian company Dome Productions is doing an outstanding job as the host broadcaster for the event. All the technicians with Dome went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed.
And when things are not going well in Toronto, you're going to hear about it. And you're going to say things are not good at all, where it's really not that bad.
- Mats Sundin
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