(( Love Story ))

     
 

Ole & Lena lived by lake in Nordern Minnesota .  It vas early vinter and DA lake had froze over.          Ole asked Lena if she vould valk across DA frozen lake to DA yeneral store to get him some smokes. She asked him for some money, but he told her, Nah, yust put it on our tab. So Lena valked across, got the smokes at DA yeneral store, den walked back home across the lake. Ven she got home and gave Ole his smokes she asked him, Ole, you alvays tell me not to run up DA tab at DA store. Why didn't you yust give me some money? Ole replied, Vell, I didn't vant to send you out dere vit some money ven I vasn't sure how tick the ice vas yet.      Kinda brings a tear to me eye..it does!

    

 

  

  95 year old hero!  

  Letter To Obama, Sent from a 95 year Old Pearl Harbor Survivor!

 
This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii 
for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter  to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

 
Dear President Obama,       
        
    My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13, 2009.  People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
 
I enlisted in the U. S . Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate.  Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
 
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
 
So here goes.
 
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
 
I can't figure out what country you are the president of. 
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like: 
            " We're no longer a Christian nation" 
            " America is arrogant" - (Your wife even 
                announced to the world," America is mean- 
                spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching 
                that nonsense to 23 generations of our 
                war dead buried all over the globe who 
                died for no other reason than to free a 
                whole lot of strangers from tyranny and 
                hopelessness.) 
I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you.  To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
 
After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."
 
Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British?  Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War?  I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
 
I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination.  You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
 
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
 
Shape up and start acting like an American.  If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue .  You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
 
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight?  You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
 
One more thing.  I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son.  Do your job.  When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him.  But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out.  The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.
 
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.   
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy.  That's not our greatest threat.  Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. 
And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle...
 
Sincerely, 
Harold B. Estes
 

Snopes confirms as true:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/haroldestes.asp

When a 95 year old hero of the "the Greatest Generation" stands up and speaks out like this, I think we owe it to him to send his words to as many as we can. Please pass it on.

 

 

Amazing nature - The Eagle Owl

This is a very high speed camera, normal speed is in the 16 frames per second range.
Watch his feathers in the few seconds.

OWL LANDING RIGHT AT CAMERA --FANTASTIC!!

Owl coming right at Raytheon security camera. A hypnotic piece of film slowed for your pleasure.

The last two or three seconds are phenomenal!

Click on link below:

http://www.dogwork.com/owfo8/

 

Amazing nature - The Eagle Owl

   My '34 Mercedes-Benz 500 K Roadster  

 

  I Built mine from a kit, which was a full scale model weighing 

over 2 tons (4,000 lbs). Wish now that I had not sold that car 

at a special auto auction for a little more than $20,000. 

About broke even on what the kit, extra parts and buying a 

used '70 Camero for $1,000 cost me. Had to use the front 

frame, rear end, engine, transmission & some other parts.

 

Starting Friday, more than $200 million' worth of classic and rare automobiles 

will go under the hammer at the auctions surrounding the Pebble Beach 

Concours d'Elegance in California, with more than 70 of those expected to 

fetch at least $1 million. Even amid a booming market for old cars, there are 

a few that stand out -- including one that was once ditched on the side of a 

California freeway, and another that sat in a shed for nearly 40 years which 

could break the auction record of $16.4 million.

While the Pebble Beach show itself will draw 15,000 visitors on Sunday, 

the plethora of auctions around the event in Monterey, Calif., have become 

even more of a spectator event. Among the gawkers will be wealthy buyers 

hunting not just a jalopy they can boast about, but a place to invest their 

money that could pay off big. Hagarty's Insurance, which tracks collector-car 

prices, says its index of "blue-chip" collector vehicles has risen 9 percent this 

year to a record high -- a greater return than almost any other investment 

class. The world will always have more gold and stocks, but there won't be 

any more 1965 Ferrari's.

From the hundreds of vehicles that will be offered this weekend, here's six 

that will get much of the attention and some of the highest bids:

 

1936 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster

The star of the weekend, this massive, supercharged Mercedes-Benz was 

owned by Baroness Gisela von Krieger, one of the last members of German 

aristocracy and a socialite once named among the world's most beautiful in 

pre-war Paris. After the war, a newly reclusive von Krieger moved to New 

York, and later Connecticut, bringing her car with her. When her brother 

died in Europe in 1959, von Krieger stayed, leaving her car in the shed of 

a Connecticut inn for safekeeping.

This isn't just any Mercedes-Benz roadster, but one of a handful of copies 

of the finest cars the company built before World War II; the von Kriegers 

ordered it with a custom body, dash and even a pushbutton radio, a rarity 

in the era. Despite entreaties from several collectors and Mercedes-Benz 

itself, von Krieger died in 1989 without ever selling the car, despite not 

seeing it for more than three decades.

With no heirs, von Krieger's car fell into a legal abyss; only when a lawyer 

contacted auctioneer David Gooding in 1991 about an "old, black two-seat 

Mercedes" did the mystery start to unfold. With a few more details, 

Gooding flew across the country to inspect it, and found the Roadster 

almost as von Krieger had parked it in the '50s -- her spent cigarettes still 

in the ashtray.

After a spare-no-expense restoration by owner Lee Harrington, the 540 K 

Special has won several prizes over the past few years, including a 

best-in-class at Pebble Beach. Estimates put the car's value at a minimum 

of $10 million -- and given the passion for having one of the rarest 

vehicles in the world, it could sell for far more. 

      

   

Is It A Bug Or What?

 

 

Is this a mosquito? No.

It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production,

funded by the US Government. It can be controlled and is

equipped with a camera and a microphone.

It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA

sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin.

It can be operated to fly through the open window or door and attach to your clothing.

The Future of Drone Surveillance: Swarms of Cyborg Insect Drones

.

Forget the roachbots and the swarm of MIT humanoid robots dancing in sync, as well as "disposable"quarter-sized kilobots which are "cheap enough to swarm in the thousands," and think instead of DARPA-like tiny insect cyborg drones that are "designed to go places that soldiers cannot" to work as spies or as swarm weapons. Is this a mosquito micro air vehicle (MAV)?

 

 

Alan Lovejoy wrote, "Such a device could be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera, microphone. It could land on you and then use its needle to take a DNA sample with the pain of a mosquito bite. Or it could inject a micro RFID tracking device under your skin." While DNA-sucking, RFID-chip-injecting mosquito drones are currently a bunch of bunk, a Bing image search shows a multitude of MAVs that aren't simply CGI mockups.

 

 

 

This little MAV had a 3 centimeter wingspan and that was back in 2007. When the U.S. government was accused of making insect spy drones in 2007, Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert on unmanned aerial craft, told the Telegraph, "America can be pretty sneaky." The article also mentioned a dragonfly drone the CIA had developed in the 1970s.

 

 

 

While reading people's comments concerning spy drones flying overhead, there have been many comments about "skeet shooting" drones down from the sky. Thatwould most likely be destroying government property and make a person a "terrorist." Besides, would you really see a tiny part bot, part bug "cyborg insect" drone from a distance if it was spying on you?

 

 

 

In 2008, the U.S. Air Force showed off bug-sized spies as "tiny as bumblebees" that would not be detected when flying into buildings to "photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists."

 

 

 

Many flying insect drones were developed into prototypes that year, but look again at the fly drone that could fit on the tip of your finger. Gizmo Insider suggested, "We've heard of a fly swatter, but what about a marksman trying to shoot down every fly he sees within a 100 yard radius. The future of warfare and intelligence collection just got a whole lot more sophisticated." That was five years ago, so what insect spy drones exist now that the public doesn't know about?

 

 

 

The MAV Ornithopter on the left, so-called "lethal mini drones," were being developed outside of Dayton, Ohio, and were set to roll-out by 2015.

Lockheed Martin's Intelligent Robotics Laboratories unveiled "maple-seed-like" drones called Samarai that also mimic nature. U.S. troops could throw them like a boomrang to see real-time images of what's around the next corner, the Navy Times reported. It could also be "useful for the military and police" to look inside buildings. But nano-biomimicry MAV design has long been studied by DARPA. DARPA's 2008 symposium discussed "bugs, bots, borgs and bio-weapons." The Pentagon's "cyborg moth" is now defunct tech and bat drone bots are also old surveillance news. Researchers have developed bio-inspired drones with bug eyes, bat ears, bird wings, and even honeybee-like hairs to sense biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

The future of hard-to-detect drone surveillance will mimic nature. The dragonfly "insect spy" drone is old, but bug-sized microdrones with flapping wings are still considered the future. The U.S. is not alone in miniaturizing drones that imitate nature; France has flapping wing bio-inspired microdrones [PDF] and the Netherlands BioMAV (Biologically Inspired A.I. for Micro Aerial Vehicles) developed a Parrot AR Drone last year; it's now available in the USA as a "flying video game" toy. DARPA's Hummingbird Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) was named by Time Magazine as one of the best 50 inventions of 2011.

 

 

John Hopkins University said in February 2012 that "butterfly research will aid the development of flying bug-size robots" and showed off this "insect-inspired flapping-wing MAV under development at Harvard University."

 

 

 

 That looks a great deal like the "fly drone" yet again, only this time compared to a penny. Are they commonly used and we just don't know it?

 

 

 

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation funded the insect flight dynamics research, so John Hopkins researchers have turned to studying even smaller MAV bugs like fruit flies.

 

The University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab showed off drones that swarm, a network of 20 nano quadrotors flying in synchronized formations. Engadget called them "four-bladed aerial ninjas," but the SWARMS goal is to combine swarm technology with bio-inspired drones to operate "with little or no direct human supervision" in "dynamic, resource-constrained, adversarial environments."

 

So the "mosquito" drone is fake, so far as we know, but the Air Force asked for itty bitty drones that could "covertly drop a mysterious and unspecified tracking 'dust' onto people, allowing them to be tracked from a distance." All of this drone tech is meant for military use, but would we really see these if they were deployed in America?

   

   

Bucket Of Shrimp

 “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles R. Swindoll 

  

Old Eddie

It happens every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembles a giant orange and is starting to dip into the blue ocean.  Old Ed comes strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched  in his bony hand is a bucket of shrimp.

Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the  world  to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's  gone,  except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts....and his bucket of shrimp.

 

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier. Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. 

Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you  listen  closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place. Invariably, one of the gulls lands on his sea-bleached, weather-beaten hat - an old military hat he's been wearing for years. When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a  few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, 'a guy that's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say. To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant....maybe even a lot of nonsense. Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.  Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida.

 

That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better. His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and  his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived,  crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker  and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. They needed a  miracle.

That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.

Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull! Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning  his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they  caught  fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle continued.

 With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea).

 Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull. And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

 

The story about the plane crash and the seagull is true and is an excerpt from a book by popular minister and inspirational author Max Lucado.  The book is titled, "In the Eye of the Storm."

Rickenbacker tells the story of the sea gulls in his autobiography.  Rickenbacker

was a pilot during WW I who became an ace and was presented with

The Medal of Honor.   The crash at sea took place in 1942 when he was

sent by the U.S. government on a tour of the Pacific theater. 

The four-engine B-17 bomber on which he was a passenger went off course

and ran out of fuel at sea. 

He went on to be a race car driver, an aviation consultant, and airline executive.   Rickenbacker was not the founder of Eastern Airlines but was very influential in the General Motors acquisition of Eastern Air Transport, a compilation of North American Aviation and Pitcair Aviation Company that was owned by Clement Keyes.   When General Motors acquired the company from Keys they renamed it to Eastern Air Lines.  In January of 1934 Rickenbacker began his term  general manager for Eastern Air Lines and later served also as the company's president.

               

       

 

Spanky & Our Gang

   

Does anyone besides me remember 

those short silent films?
   
I only vaguely recall some of the episodes showed in theaters.
  

 

What ever happened to those kids?



In case you forgot who was who.



Well, here are some on them....


Our Gang Actors


Alfalfa --

 

 

Carl Switzer was shot to death at age 31.







Chubby --

 

 

300-pound Norman Chaney died at age 22 following an operation.







Buckwheat --

 

 

William Thomas died at age 49 of a heart attack. (wow I never knew that buckwheat was played by a black boy!)







Darla Hood --

 

 

The Our Gang leading lady contracted hepatitis and died at age 47.







Brisbane -- 

 

 

Kendall McCormas, known as Breezy Brisbane, committed suicide at age 64.






Froggy -- 

 

 

William Robert Laughline was killed in
a motor scooter accident at age 16.




Mickey Daniels –

 

 

He died of liver disease at age 55.




Stymie --

 

 

 Mathew Bear became addicted to drugs,
especially heroin & spent much of his young
adult years in & out of jail. In the 80's got off
the drugs & went back into acting & traveling around the country doing drug abuse lectures, before dying of pneumonia. 
 




Scotty Beckett --

 

 

He checked into a Hollywood nursing home on May 8, 1968, needing medical attention after suffering a serious beating & died two days later.





Wheezer --

 

 

Robert Hutchins was killed in
an airplane accident at age 19.





Butch --

 

 

Thomas Bond died of complications from heart disease, in Los Angeles at age 79.









Spanky....

 

 

George McFarland went on to become a Fort Worth, Texas Businessman before his death
of a heart attack in 1993.
 
  

  

 
The Rest Of The Budweiser Story 

(not a joke)

  

This May Not Be A TRUE Story,

But Is Still A Good Story, 

Besides It Has Great Graphics! 
~   ~   ~   ~   ~
How Budweiser handled those who laughed at those 

who died on the 11th of September,
2001... 

Thought you might like to know what happened 
in a little town north of Bakersfield , California 

After you finish reading this, 

 
please forward this story on to others 

so that our nation and people around the world 

will know about those who laughed 

when they found out about the tragic events
 
in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon. 

On September 11th, 
A Budweiser employee was making a delivery 
to a convenience store in a California town 
named McFarland.

He knew of the tragedy that had occurred 
in New York when he entered the business 

to find the two Arabs, who owned the business, whooping and hollering to show their approval and support of this treacherous attack. 

The Budweiser employee went to his truck, 
called his boss and told him 
of the very upsetting event! 

He didn't feel he could be in that store with
those horrible people. His boss asked him,
"Do you think you could go in there long enough 
to pull every Budweiser product and item 
our beverage company sells there? 
We'll never deliver to them again."

The employee walked in, 
proceeded to pull every single product his 
beverage company provided and left
with an incredible grin on his face. 

He told them never to bother to call for 
a delivery again. 

Budweiser happens to be the beer of choice 
for that community. 

 

Just letting you know how Kern County 

handled this situation. And Now -- 

The Rest Of The Story! 

It seems that the Bud driver and the Pepsi man 
are neighbors. Bud called Pepsi and told him. 
Pepsi called his boss who told him to 
pull all Pepsi products as well!
That would include Frito Lay, etc. 

Furthermore, word spread and 
all vendors followed suit! At last report,
on June 26, 2009, 
Fareed Katib closed the store and filed bankruptcy! 

Good old American 
Passive-Aggressive A$$ Whoopin! 

Pass this along, America needs to know 
that we're all working together! 

If you can read this. 
Thank a teacher! 

If you are reading it in English ...

THANK A SOLDIER! 

 

If you do not send this 
you have no soul!