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April 28 Lt. Governor's Writer's AwardCongratulations!
to my grandaughter Megan
for winning the Lt. Governor's Writer's Award
We're very proud of you!
(here's her story)
Who Wants Turkey?
When I opened the refrigerator door and heard a mysterious voice say "Yes?" I could only hope that our Thanksgiving dinner wasn't alive like it was last year. A year ago when I opened the door to retrieve our turkey for dinner, it attacked me. It literally jumped out of the fridge onto my head. Some sort of weird irony must have occurred since the turkey was the one trying to eat me.
I hoped that the voice that said "Yes?" was only coming from my imagination, but when I looked inside, the turkey was looking at me. Well, not exactly looking at me since it had no head, but it was facing me. The turkey didn't seem to find it alarming that he was talking to me, but I nearly passed out. Somehow, I managed to stay awake. The turkey said, "Hey! You're not thinking about eating me are you? Because I promise, I don't taste good." I laughed.
"Of course I'm going to eat you! Tomorrow's Thanksgiving!" I replied.
The turkey screamed and fell over. I tried to pick him up, but he pushed me away.
"We turkeys hate Thanksgiving! All it really is is a mass murder! Millions of turkeys are killed and consumed!"
"I didn't think turkeys had feelings," I stated.
The turkey looked at me and said, "How would you feel if nearly all of your family and friends were killed and eaten on the same day?"
I pondered this and looked at the skinless, white piece of meat. "That will never happen," I said.
When I said that, the turkey leapt out of the fridge and on to the black and white kitchen tile. "We'll see about that!" it said, and ran down the hall. Or, at least, it tried. After two steps, it fell over. I picked it up, put it in a pan, and poured some spices on it.
The whole time, the turkey was yelling, "Stop! Wait! You don't know what you're doing!"
I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. The turkey screamed like a banshee. I shoved him in the oven.
I think that was the best Thanksgiving turkey I ever ate.
Megan, I think that all I can say is that turkeys can be like that. Thanks for the great story.
April 21 Information on IranIran was known as Persia, a rich land, ruled by the hereditary shah of the Qajar dynasty. Often interferred with and run by other nations, such as France, Britian, and Russia. In 1919, Iran made a trade agreement with Great Britian in which Britian formally reaffirmed Iran's independence but it actually established a complete protectorate over Iran. After Iran signed a treaty recognizing the USSR in 1921, the Soviet Union renounced czarist imperialistic policies toward, Iran; canceled all debts and concessions, and withdrew its occupation forces from Iranian territory. In this same year Raza Khan, an army officer, effected a coup and established a military dictatorship in Iran.
In 1925, Reza Khan was elected as hereditary shah of Iran, thus founding the new Palhlevi dynasty. In August 1941, 2 months after the German invasion of the USSR, Britian and Soviet forces occupied Iran. On Sept 16th the shah abdicated in favor of his son, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi. At the Tehran Conference in 1943 the Tehran Declaration, signed by the US, Britian, and the USSR, guaranteed the independence and territorial integrity of Iran.
In 1951, the National Front movement, headed by Premier Mussadegh, a militant nationalist, forced the Iranian parliament to nationalize the oil industry and form the National Iranian Oil Company. Although a British blockade led to the virtual collapse of the oil industry and internal economic troubles, Mussadegh continued his nationalization policy. Openly opposed by the Shah, Mussadegh was ousted in 1952, but quickly regained power. The shah fled Iran but returned when monarchist elements (covert US activity) forced Mussadegh from office in Aug 1953.
In 1954, Iran allowed an international consortium of British, American, French, and Dutch oil companies to operate its oil facilities, with profits shared equally. After 1953, a succession of premiers restored a measure of order to Iran; in 1957, martial law was ended after 16 years. Iran established closer relations with the West, receiving large amounts of military and economic aid from the US until the late 1960s.
In the 1960s and 70s the Iranian government, at the shah's initiative, undertook a broad program designed to improve economic and social conditions. Land reform was a major priority, transforming the feudal peasant-landlord agricultural system, the government purchased estates and sold the land to the people. Within 3 years, 1.5 million former tenant farmers were plot owners. The shah held close reins on the government as absolute monarch, but he moved toward certain democratic reforms within Iran. A new government-backed political party, the Iran Novin Party, won an overwhelming majority in the parliament and in 1963, women received the right to vote in national elections.
Dispite all this, poor economic conditions alienated some of the major religious and political groups and riots occurred. Premier Hassan Ali Mansur was assassinated and an unsuccessful attempt was made on the shah's live in 1965. Iran's pro-Western policies continued into the 1970s; however, opposition to Westernization and secularization was strongly denounced by the Islamic clergy, headed by Ayatollah Khomeini, who was in exile. These conditions, in addition to the shah's secret police force (SAVAK), didn't help matters.
The rapid growth of industrialization and modernization programs within Iran, accompanied by ostentatious private wealth, became greatly resented by the bulk of the population, mainly in the overcrowded urban areas and among the rural poor. The shah's autocratic rule and his extensive use of his secret police led to widespread popular unrest throughout 1978. The religious-based protests were conservative in nature, directed against the shah's policies. Khomeini, who was expelled from Iraq in Feb 1978, called for the abdication of the shah. Martial law was declared in September for all major cities, but as governmental controls faltered, the shah fled Iran on Jan 16, 1979. The shah and his family came to America where he died years later from a form of cancer. Khomeini returned and led religious revolutionaries to the final overthrow of the shah's government on Feb 11th.
On Nov 4, 1979 a mob in Tehran, Iran stormed the US Embassy and took the entire staff hostage. This was done with the encouragement of the Iranian government which did nothing to protect the embassy as they were bound to do. Eventually, the Iranian government took charge of the hostages from the mob but did not release the hostages. Over time some were released, such as women and blacks, but the rest were not. President Carter was unwilling to use military force, despite the fact that seizing an embassy like that is, in fact, an act of war. When Ronald Reagon was elected in 1980 (actually on the anniversary of the hostage seizure) the dynamic suddenly changed; it was clear that Reagon would use military force to release the hostages and the Iranians began serious negotiations. They dragged it out as long as they could in order to humiliate Carter, but finally released the hostages on the day Reagon took office, just after he was sworn in, 444 days after the storming of the embassy.
Now, in June of 2005, presidential elections in Iran were won by the hardline conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At least two of the embassy hostages have identified Ahmadinejad as one of the leaders of the mob of hostage takers. After Ahmadinejad's election as president, Iran resumed converting raw uranium into gas, and can now enrich uranium which leads to the production of nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad has publicly stated that Israel will no longer exist after Iran has possession of the nuclear bomb. This can only be understood to be an warning to Israel that it's days on this earth are now numbered.
In the days of Arial Sharon, Iran would have been bombed by now. In the wake of Sharon's stroke, the assention of the new leader of Israel, and the recent bombing of Tel Aviv, how much longer do we have before nuclear war in the Middle East? How much longer before Ahmadinejad completes what he started in 1979? What's your guess? April 15 They're Lining Up.WELL THEY'RE LINING UP!
Yep, you got it, they're lining up at the border. Not just New Mexico! Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and California too. And, they're not just from Mexico, they are from all over Latin and South America. Men, men and women (some pregnant), and whole families. They heard the news that Uncle Sam is handing out temporary green cards and maybe even amnesty.
They're sleeping out in the cold desert night in the open, in tents, and in junker cars, just waiting for the word and they are all going to rush the border. You think you're just letting the illegals already in the country stay here and live, NO WAY, you're in for the biggest influx of unemployed, Spanish-speaking folks this country has ever seen. You wait til you see the impact on our economy when they run for the border (and it ain't Taco Bell). The desert looks like a refuge camp, and if Congress doesn't pass an amnesty bill now, we're going to get them anyway. April 14 Today's Blog an InspirationToday's blog was an inspiration from The Adventures of Thotman 4/5/2006, "An Unforgettable Teacher."
I was in high school in the 1960's. My graduating class was 1968, in a small city in northwestern Pennsylvania. Back in those days kids were separated into: College Prep, Business, Technical, or Special Education. Your yearly national test scores determined which program you fit into and someone in charge of such things, determined your class schedule. Students didn't have any input unless for some rare reason a College Prep student was sure they couldn't afford college; then they could be placed in Business or if a male student, Technical.
Unfortunately, if you were a gifted student, in those days, you struggled to keep from being bored to death in your College Prep program among your not-so-gifted peers. I have to say that I really struggled. It seemed to me that year-after-year we studied the same material over and over, until I was just spinning my wheels (so to speak) getting nowhere. Even though I volunteered for extra credit or read the fatest or more advanced books for book reports (a.k.a., In Cold Blood), I still struggled in most classes to stay interested, and where there are bored youngsters there is trouble.
But, in my senior year of high school, I happened upon Mr. Huffman a new, young teacher of History. He was a big man of German decent and quite loud. I hated his class because he seemed to enjoy intimidating students. He'd give us an assignment, give us directions on how it was to be done, and then launch into individual tirades. He would point at me and shout, "DiBlasi----I know you're too stupid to figure this out, so don't even bother."
These remarks in front of fellow classmates only served to spur me on to the highest grades of all his history students; however, it never slowed down, or stopped, Mr. Huffman's pointed classroom remarks on the low level of my intelligence.
Of course, in those days, kids had to work evenings after classes if we wanted to possess any amenities in life. I was one of those who worked evenings in the City Hospital Emergency Room. Usually until quite late. One morning, after a late night of work, I found myself falling asleep in Mr. Huffman's boring class. He, as usual, ignored me. However, he decided to pick on a fellow student who sat in front of me. This student was a blonde young man who also attended the same Lutheran church as I, and it had been noted that when teased or embarrassed, this young man would start turning red from the neck of his shirt, slowly rising up his face to meet his blonde hairline.
Being his typical jerky self, Mr. Huffman pointed at this young man and yelled, "Didn't I see you kissy facing with her in the hallway?" Huffman pointed to a shy, wallflower across the isle. Of course Miss Wallflower started crying and hid her face, the young man started turning red in stages until his entire face was beet red. Now, the classroom erupted in laughter, pointing fingers and jeering.
Mr. Huffman loved the reaction, which fed his ego and kept his tirade going. When I came out of my sleepy stupor and realized everyone was enjoying the show except Miss Wallflower and my friend (the young, red man), I stood up at my seat and told Mr. Huffman what a true jerk he was, feeding on the feelings of students too afraid to talk back to him, which in those days was unheard of. Silence ensued. I was removed from Mr. Huffman's class, never to return.
Several years later my younger brother suffered in Huffman's class because our last names happened to be the same. But, whoa not our personalities (my brother endured).
Now you would think that I'd never want to see Mr. Huffman again; but, you'd be wrong. Years have past and I often look back on Mr. Huffman's class, and saw that this was his way of inspiring otherwise bored to death students. By insulting my IQ level in his class, he ensured I'd make the highest grades (he knew that, but I didn't). On the occasions (and they are very few) that I've returned to my hometown, I've tried to find Mr. Huffman. I haven't. I know that he left the teaching profession and became a Pennsylvania Highway Patrolman and he still lives somewhere in the state.
If he, or anyone who knows him, happens to read this blog, I'd like him to know that SMART-MOUTH kid figured it out, and thanks.
April 05 Got To Love Those MexicansYeah, ya got to love those Mexican Police. The American police are waiting on the bridge in El Paso for Mr. Astorga to be brought across from Mexico. The Mexican police had notified our police that Mr. Astorga would be declared an illegal alien and returned to face the authorities for the two murders. Then at the last minute they call and say that the first person to pay $2,000 for Mr. Astorga would be allowed to take him. In other words pay up or we turn him over to his gang friends. So, New Mexico police had to run to the ATM machine in El Paso and take money out of their personal accounts to pay the $2,000. Next time the Mexican police need help catching someone here in the US, I think we should up the ransom. Thanks a lot Mexico for your help. April 03 Capture of Mr. AstorgaThey have captured Mr. Astorga. Guess where! In Mexico. His aunt, who worked at the Department of Motor Vehicles, was giving him fake IDs so he could elude the police. She is now in jail for aiding and abetting. After the "America's Most Wanted" TV show last week, local police received enough phone calls to piece together that Mr. Astorga was down in Huarez, Mexico. Mexican police arrested him, but Mexico will not extradict to any country with a death penalty. So, local police will have to guarantee not to try Mr. Astorga with a death penalty option. Tax payers are now forced to support him for the rest of his life in prison, hopefully without parole, until he dies. I'm glad to see that he has been captured and that 6 others who helped him are also behind bars. |
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