Mixed Bag

This is a mixed bag kind a day. I can't seem to focus on any one topic in particular for an extended amount of time. I'll just throw out some different thoughts and see what sticks.

Let's start with this from Walter Mondale, former Senator from Minnesota and former VP for President Carter:

"Since the Carter administration left office, we have been criticized for many things. Yet I remain enormously proud of what we did in those four years, especially that we told the truth, obeyed the law and kept the peace." That from an op-ed he wrote which appeared in the Sunday Houston Chronicle.

I needed a little antacid after that one. What is he talking about? What accomplishments? Gas lines? Interest rates through the roof? Embassy personnel taken hostage in Iran? Just throw on a cardigan and lower your thermostats as an energy policy? Consulting his elementary school age daughter about nuclear proliferation? Killer rabbits? On and on and on. Yet nothing positive comes to mind. Negotiations with terrorists? Yeah, how did that work out? Those deranged by hatred of President Bush hold out the hope that their man Jimma won't be the all time worst president of modern days, but I still don't think that'll be the reality. Even the most rabid of Bush critics see events moving the other way and that is why the rhetoric is being torqued up. Just listen to Reid, Schumer and Grandma Mimi Pelosi, that's all you need to do.

Mondale seems old and senile. Who is it asking for his thoughts? Who even remembers he was Carter's VP?

There is a local story that is odd, to say the least. A billionaire is facing felony charges stemming from a 2002 big game hunt in Siberia. He was hunting from a helicopter and shot and killed a moose and a sheep. He says he didn't know it was illegal in Russia. Neither animal was endangered, according to the newspaper interview in the Houston Chronicle. His guide is now a top official with the Russian Federation's hunting licensing agency. No complaints or charges were filed in Russia.

Seems there is the Lacey Act that prosecutors from Washington, DC may use. It is 107 years old as a law created to prevent the interstate and international trafficking of rare plants and animals. They plan to bring the federal charges against Dan Duncan. Duncan, I may note, is the wealthiest man in Houston and number 85 on the Forbes' worldwide list of billionaires. His biggest headlines to date have come from a gift last year to Baylor College of Medicine of $100 million, for which they named a building after him. He said he assumed his local guides knew the local laws.

The moose was flown to a nearby Russian town where the meat was given away. The busts of the moose and sheep are at his 5,000 acre exotic game ranch, in storage and not on display.

A grand jury was convened in Charlottesville, VA as it is where the outfitter who organized the trip is located. A second grand jury was convened in Houston as this is where the trophy heads entered the U.S. Other hunters from the party may be under investigation.

Duncan is 74 years of age and is listed with 550 entries in the Safari Club International Record Book, which lists the biggest animals legally shot, according to the article.

I'm concerned about the Americans being held in Iran, two who recently were forced to appear on tv in a documentary and confessing to their activities in country. Tehran said their activities are to undermine its national security and gin up revolution.

I'm concerned about the group of 23 South Korean volunteers who were in Afghanistan on a medical aide mission and captured as hostages by the Taliban. So far two have been killed since they were captured 14 days ago. They make demands of the Korean government and of Karsai's government in Afghanistan to release Taliban prisoners. The Taliban say they will continue to kill the men first, then women if their demands are not met.

South Korea has now asked Washington, DC for any help we may give. I thought the world hated us? Seems they still come to us for help, though, huh? Even after the big ruckus the past few years over the locals wanting our military to move out of the country. Nothing changes despite what the defeatists would have you believe.

My blogging buddy Karen, from http://www.seawitch.observationdeck.org/ has tagged me in a meme. I will post it tomorrow. Five of you will be involved. It's a nice one and now you've been warned.