Today's Potluck Quotes (4 of 10): Richard Nixon

Greetings to those of you enjoying your lunch break at the New Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Salt Lake City, Utah, where it is almost noon now, or any of you who are a taking a break from the 2016 Rio Olympics where Team USA is now playing Team Japan in women's volleyball.

One of the fun aspects of these Olympics has been following former American Olympic gymnast and UCLA Bruins standout gymnast Samantha Peszek use social media to document her experiences in Brazil covering the games, which have included sharing a ride with former gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi whom our friend blogger Chris Knight from Reidsville, NC, ran into in an airport once.

Ok that's enough digression; here's today's quote of the day from the late Richard Nixon (1913-1994); yes. of course, we are doing this because it's also an election year here in les etats unis:

"If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But, if you take no risks, you win no victories."

Wow! Even though he is no longer alive, it seems like Nixon would have been a perfect spokesperson for match.com

According to the web site for the Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., CIA director John Brennan will speak there on Aug. 24th at 1:00 p.m. about how intelligence was gathered during the Cold War when Nixon was president.

http://www.slcnewdragon.com

http://www.uclabruins.com

https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/

Top 10 Comics from the Mother's Day Sunday 'Washington Post:' It's Not Easy Being Green

Greetings to our blog readers in Malaysia, Malta and Mexico....maybe, we should go with Greece instead of Malta; it's a larger country.....oh, ooops, sorry for thinking out loud!

Today, our ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post" included "WuMo" bringing in Hulk, a Gremlin, and Yoda, to the office, to show off that they are now being green. Get it? Well, it's funny if you see it: http://www.gocomics.com/wumo ......our assumption is that Kermit the Frog feels a bit snubbed.

In second place, "Lio" continues a great tribute to filmmaker Ridley Scott with a comic strip homage to "Blade Runner" http://www.gocmics.com/lio  featuring all the characters for the film which will be midnight screened at the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah from June 12th to the 14th. Here is the link: http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org

Dave Coverly's single-panel strip "Speed Bump" features a kangaroo who carries a puppy in her pouch: http://www.gocomics/speedbump

We also really liked "Mark Trail," an educational science comic strip which informs us about those dreaded doodlebugs (pict. center): https://comicskingdom.com/mark-trail

Here is our top ten: http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

1. WuMo

2. Lio

3. Speed Bump

4. Foxtrot

5. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

6. Reply All http://www.gocomics.com/replyall

7. Rhymes with Orange

8. The Argyle Sweater http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater

9. Dustin http://comicskingdom.com/dustin/2015-05-10

10. Mark Trail

For our look at our ten favorite strips from "The Roanoke Times," go to our sister blog (not my sister's blog) at http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Survey of the Best Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post (Oct. 19th edition)

Greetings to those of you reading this blog in Germany, Ukraine and Cyprus, and special greetings to those of you have just joined us after watching the Florida gubernatorial race debate between incumbent Rick Scott (R) and his challenger Charlie Crist (D) or for those of you who are already bored with the World Series, which is starting tonight.

This week, we really liked the "Pearls Before Swine" take on the old Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First," but it was a week full of great comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post. The Danish import WuMo had Yoda, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh meeting in the children's section of a public library, perhaps they were in Hartford, Conn. (we have a gag about how we are posting from the Hartford Public Library even though we've never been in that building). "WuMo" got second place in our survey.

The bronze medal went to Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, no, we just said that to keep you from daydreaming; it actually went to "Rhymes with Orange" which features selfies from the whole family. We're sure our friends at the Urban Dictionary who have coined terms like 'shoefie' and 'brofie' got a hoot out of the Hilary B. Price strip (http://www.urbandictionary.com) The selfie gag is the reason why Kim Kardashian is in our top image slot.

We also enjoyed the educational comic strip "Mark Trail" which focused on various spiders like tarantulas (pictured center) and scorpions; the strip revealed that some spiders actually dine on fish?! Perhaps, they would like Red Lobster.

The cutting edge comic strip "Candorville" had a take on man seeing a shrink, and for that we are featuring an image of Lucy from "Peanuts," a nice comic strip that will probably be in newspapers until the year 2073, when Lucy will be 116 years old.

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. WuMo

3. Rhymes with Orange

4. Speed Bump

5. Sherman's Lagoon

6, Dustin

7. Lio

8. Big Nate

9. Mark Trail

10. Candorville

http://www.hplct.org/ (The actual web site of the Hartford Public Library)

http://www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/ (The actual web site of the Salt Lake City Library in Utah; they have 12,711 followers on Twitter)

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

http://marktrail.com/

http://rhymeswithorange.com/

http://www.candorville.com

College Gymnastics Lists (4 of4): Gymnasts from the Pac-12 Conference

Of the 12 schools in the PAC-12 Conference, eight have women's gymnastics programs (Colorado, USC, Washington State and Oregon do not), so you may not see many Oregon Ducks t-shirts at a gymnastics meet. But, here are 10 gymnastics from those eight schools which have teams, UCLA, Utah and Stanford are seemingly possible contenders for the Super Six (equivalent of the Final Four):


1) Sydney Sawa, UCLA. Senior. (pictured top)

2) Aliza Vaccher, Washington, Senior. (pictured center)

3) Stephanie Miceli. Arizona State. Soph. (pictured bottom)

4) Georgia Dabritz, Utah. Junior

5) Selynna Felix-Terrazas. Arizona. Fresh.

6) Chelsea Tang. Oregon State. Junior.

7) Ivana Hong, Stanford. Junior

8) Alice Asturias, California. Senior.

9) Leilani Alferos, California. Senior

10) Allison Northey, Washington. Soph.

http://www.collegegymfans.com

Little Thinkers Quote of the Day (9 of 16): Friedrich Nietzsche (Perhaps, it's a tad bit controversial)...

Today's blog entry is the brainchild of Gary Gnu (a puppet from a children's tv show which aired from 1981-86), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah); it is a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, the provocative German philosopher whose name is always hard as hell to spell:

"After coming into contact with a religious man, I always feel I must wash my hands."

http://www.philosophytalk.org/ (American public radio show dedicated to philosophy)

Presidential Quotes (12 of 16): James A Garfield

Today, we quote president James A. Garfield (1831-1881), who was president for a mere six months before being assassinated by a very troubled Charles J. Guiteau, who was executed by hanging for his crime though there was evidence of him being insane.

Here is our quote from Garfield, who was a Republican: "A brave man is a who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is the Devil."

SIDEBAR: Today was a major day on Capitol Hill. No, there was no meaningful legislation passed, but three members of the House of Representatives announced they would retire and/or not seek re-election.

The first is Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va), a man the blogger got to know when reporting for a newspaper in Woodstock, Va., which was then in Wolf's 10th district (it is now in Cong. Bob Goodlatte's sixth district). Wolf was one of the main champions of human rights on the Hill, and he even traveled to troubled countries, such as Sudan (and what is now South Sudan), to report on mass atrocities. Today, one of the people who praised Wolf was former Cong. Tom Perriello (D-VA), now a progressive activist, for Wolf's role in recognizing human rights.

Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), who was arguably the most conservative Democrat in the House, which is understandable given that his district was very ultra-conservative. Matheson won his much- publicized last election over Mia Love, who is a rare African-American female Republican. Like Matheson, Love is a practicing Mormon, though she converted into the faith.

Late in the day, Cong. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), one of House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) main allies in the House also announced he was stepping down.

http://www.millercenter.org/president/garfield

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.rollcall.com

DC Week (6 of 8): Cong. Reps from Blue States

Today, Cong. Chris Van Hollen (pictured top) made headlines when he was informed by Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who was presiding in the speaker's chair, that Democrats in the House could not introduce legislation to end the government shutdown. The video of the spat went viral, and the incident was subject of stories in both "The Salt Lake Tribune" and "The Baltimore Sun."

Since the government shutdown has just concluded the 15th day of deadlock, we thought we'd post two boxers as the middle image.

The first image is of Cong. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) who should be mistaken for ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham. While the House has a reputation for being a group of grumpy old men, Denham is only 46 years and there are two House members on this list who are younger than him.

Denham is also one of only 17 House members (from both parties) who lives in a competitive district, according to "The San Francisco Chronicle."

Here are 10 House members from Blue states:


1. Chris Von Hollen (D-Md.), fifth dist., 54, budget committee

2. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), 48, 23rd  district, minority whip; financial services

3. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), 35, 15th dist., energy and commerce; foreign affairs

4. Pete Welch (D-Vt.), 66, energy and commerce

5. Jim Langevin (D-R.I), 49, 2nd dist., Armed services

6. Pete King (R-NY), 69, 2nd dist., Financial services; foreign affairs

7. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) 46, 9th dist., agriculture; transportation and infrastructure

8. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.), 56, 5th dist., science, space and technology; transportation and infrastructure

9.Niki Tsongas, (D-Mass.), 67, 3rd dist., Armed Services; Natural Resources

10. Michael Grimm (R-NY), 43, 11th   dist., Financial Services


http://www.baltimoresun.com/

http://www.sltrib.com/

http://denham.house.gov/

http://www.sfgate.com/news/

http://vanhollen.house.gov/

http://www.rollcall.com

DC Week (2 of 8): Tweets About the Nation's Capital and the Government Shutdown

With images of 1) Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah); 2) Mabry Mill, near Roanoke, Va., which has been closed due to the federal government shutdown; and 3) Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), we begin our first of two entries in this eight-entry series geared towards Washington, D.C.

"The Roanoke Times" reported that Mabry Mill, which is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, could be reopen. Today, President Barack Obama said that states could re-open national parks with state funds. As a result, The Statue of Liberty, The Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore are likely to re-open.

Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) is considered to be the most conservative Democrat in the House, while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is considered to be the most progressive Republican in the Senate. Both are reportedly working diligently to find the proverbial common ground to restart the federal government, which is now in Day 10 of a shutdown.

Here are the tweets:

1) Cong. Jim Matheson: "Glad Utah National Parks are open. Too bad we can't vote on a clean CR (Continuing Resolution) to operate rest of the government."

2) National Review (a conservative magazine): "Barack Obama can close our parks, but he's never block American enterprise."

3) The Hill: "Chris Christie (New Jersey's Republican governor): If I was in the Senate right now, I'd kill myself."

4) Embassy of Greece: "The Embassy and Consulate will be closed on Monday. Happy #ColumbusDay weekend."

5) Politico: "New York is donating $369,300 to have park service employees reopen the Statue of Liberty."

6) Bruce Bartlett (a Republican political aide): "David Frum: Will the Republican Moderates Please Stand Up."

http://matheson.house.gov/

http://www.roanoke.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.collins.senate.gov/public/

http://www.nationalreview.com/

DC Week Teaser (2 of 2): No Pandas, No Problem

Yes, talking heads are bickering on CNN with Anderson Cooper acting as a pro-wrestling referee as we speak, and we imagine that over on Fox News Sean Hannity is blaming his jock itch on President Barack Obama (we don't go there that often, but we couldn't resist!).

On Thursday, we will start a week-long tribute to Washington, DC, the nation's capital, which many Tea Partiers who profess patriotism ironically seemingly hate with a great passion. For those of you in Uzbekistan, there is a federal government shutdown in the United States, which is affecting Washington, D.C., as well as national parks in such red states as Wyoming, Arizona and Utah.

The images pictured above are of: 1) Alex Ovechkin, the star player of the Washington Capitals (ironically, a Russian is the star player for the Caps!); 2) a panda..........currently the National Zoo which had been running a pandacam for a baby panda cub is closed due to the shut down; 3) Cong. Walter Jones (R-NC; he coined the term Freedom fries).

http://washington.org/

http://capitals.nhl.com/

http://jones.house.gov/ (Not an endorsement)

Sports Desk_ Weekend Soocer Results from Obscure Countries Around the World

Today, we were debating if we wanted to post up a political entry making fun of Congressional Republicans, such as our pal Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah, we actually don't know him), but then we also thought a UEFA Champions League update, but then we thought: "Well, everyone in Europe knows the scores and few people here in America care."

So, we decided to post scores from four relatively obscure countries, which don't make the ESPN FC highlights. Here, we will give partial scores from Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia. On our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com we shall provide partial scores from weekend play in Azerbaijan and Serbia.

As always, we like to salute soccer's bad boys, or players who got sent off with red cards, and this week's poster men are Macedonian international Vanco Trajanov who is also the captain for C. Burgas and Saudi Arabian international Mishel Al-Agmi who plays for Al Shoalah FC.

Here we go:

Bulgaria

Beroe 2 Litex Lovech 3

N.Burgas 0 Lok. Sofia 2

CSKA Sofia 3 C. Burgas 0

Lok. Sofia 1 Ludogorets 2

Tables:

1.Ludogorets

2. Litex Lovech

3. Botev Plovdiv

Saudi Arabia (very confusing, as all teams start with Al):

Al-Ittihad FC 2 Al-Taawan 1

Najron 1 Al-Ettifaq 0

Al-Nasr 2 Ah-Shoaloah 0

Al Nadha 1 Al Ahli 5

League Tables

1. Al-Hilal

2. Al-Nasr

3. Al Ahli FC

http://bulgariatravel.org/

http://www.air.bg/en/

http://74.81.82.58/~bulgaria/

http://www.saudiembassy.net/

Return of Friday Night Tweets: All Things Washington D.C.

Greetings to our blog readers in Mexico, South Africa and India. Tonight, if you only learn one thing from blog hopping, we hope that you take away this fact: Elin Suleymanov, we hope we spelled his name right, is the Azerbaijani ambassador to the United States.

Embassies were the focus of one tweet tonight, while others dealt with political issues du jour. It should also be pointed that unlike the web site for the Roanoke Tea Party (sorry, we aren't giving ou their link), which actually attacked Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia (?!), we are being nice to Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va), even though all of us here have voted for Barack Obama four times each.

Here are eight tweets which have been posted in the last 24 hours:

1. WNYC @ WNYC (NPR station in New York): Does NYC's density help protect elderly who live alone from dying in heat waves?

2. The Hill @TheHill, which is a DC-based newspaper covering Capitol Hill: "U.S. to reopen 18 of 19 embassies that were closed to terror threats. (Yemen is the lone American embassy which is not re-opening).

3. Politico @politico: "One take away from Obama's press conference. He doesn't like Vladamir Putin, not one bit."

4. The Vancouver Sun @VancouverSun: "Gay Russians seeking refuge in Canada to escape homophobic news laws."

5. Mormon Democrats @MormonDems: "#LiberalsGetUpsetWhen Republicans side with the 3 % of climate scientists who don't think #globalwarming is a problem."

6. Carson Daly @CarsonDaly: "And the Emmy goes to...........Jon Voight for Ray Donovan #wordscomingsoon"

7. Katrina vanden Heuvel @KatrinaNation: "A party that defies demographic reality, grounded in white resentment, may well doom itself to permanent minority-dom or political suicide. (Katrina is the managing editor of the liberal magazine "The Nation," pictured center. The publication has made national news for its spat with Wal-Mart over workers' wages).

8. Morgan Griffith @RepMGriffith: "Ok, Mr. President, show me the "dishes!" Show me the FISA court opinions, etc., so we can have the discussion you invited in your press conference." (Cong. Griffith is pictured bottom, he was previously the Republican leader in Virginia's House of Delegates).

For more tweets from the night go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


Other Links:

http://www.azembassy.us/3/33.html

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.utahdemocrats.org/

http://morgangriffith.house.gov/

http://www.thenation.com/

Blogging in 3.5 Minutes or Less_ Our Favorite '80s High School Films

Whether you are a supporter of Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) or Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), you will probably agree that brevity is not one of our strengths.

With that, and greetings to our blog-readers in Mozambique, Venezuela and Jordan, we bring you the latest installment of Blogging in 3.5 minutes or less.

Today, we are going to list our six favorite high school films, with no order of preference, from the 1980s.

This idea came to mind when saw that The Sundance Channel, which along with IFC airs reruns of the cult tv show "Freaks and Geeks," which ran for 18 episodes in 1999, asked followers of its Facebook page what their fav high school film was. It is also Throwback Thursday here in America, and perhaps in Jordan too.

 Here are our's:

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982; pictured_ yes, that is a year young Nicholas Cage)

"The Outsiders" (1983)

"Porky's" (1983)

"Risky Business" (1983)

"The Breakfast Club" (1985)

"Heathers" (1988, which is the year I graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland*)

*-Not really where I went to school

http://www.jasonforcongress.com

http://www.jaredpolis.com

http://www.sundancechannel.com

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org

Remembering Rogert Ebert- the Great American Movie Critic

With an image of the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah, we are honoring Roger Ebert. He was an inspiration to all of us 'movie people,' and his show "At the Movies" which he hosted with his fellow Chicago film critic the late Gene Siskel gave attention to many small films such as "The Brother from Another Planet," "Paris, Texas" and "Roger and Me."

He also championed films such as "Aguirre, Wrath of God," "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Monster" while remaining  equally outspoken about movies he despised, such as the infamous rape revenge movie "I Spit on Your Grave!" (1978; amazingly enough, it was remade just a few years ago).

I had the chance to meet Ebert at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville some 20 years ago, and I am very thankful I had a few minutes to tell him how much I admired him.

Here is one of his more famous quotes:

"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is too short."

Let the final credits roll for this remarkable man.

http://www.virginiafilmfestival.org

http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org

Tweets for a Snowy Friday Night

Since there is a major SEC women's gymnastics meet between the University of Florida Gators and the Auburn Tigers tonight, we thought we'd go with this image of an alligator; our apologies to Auburn fans as we would also post an image of a tiger but we want to get this entry up before 5:00 a.m., Dubai time (they are nine hours ahead of New York); here we go!:

1) Auburn Gymnastics @AuGymnastics: "Florida native Abby Habicht scores a 9.775. Megan up now."

2) Washington DC News @wasdcnews: "Obama Heaps Praise on Hillary Clinton in Joint Appearance."

3) Gator Gymnastics @GatorZoneGym: "Ashanee Dickerson scores a 9.925 on vault! Go #Gators! #LinktoPink

4) Sundance Channel @SundanceChannel: "@ItsDakotaFannin stopped by #Sundance Channel HQ to tell us a secret and discuss Very Good Girls."

5) AnthonyWilson @AWilsonABC11: "Downtown Raleigh, a ghost town. The ice u cant see can hurt you, so avoid the roads and #dont drive."

6)Hartford Courant @hartfordcourant: "Legislators Hear Calls for More Mental Health Services in Schools, More Police Officers."

7) Post Sports @PostSports: "Nats name William Howard Taft new racing president."

http://www.auburngymnastics.com

www.gatorzone.com/gymnastics

http://www.sundancechannel.com

http://www.sundance.org/festival

http://www.courant.com

http://www.washingpost.com/nationalsfans

This Blog Will Go On....

Yes, there have been way too many distractions as of late, but we are hoping to continue this blog in 2013, though in all probability not with the fervent frequency we've posted with in recent years.

One of our hopes this year is to post a Weekly World Weather Update on Wednesdays, starting on Jan. 23, and we are also going to attempt to post Sports Desk Updates on Mondays, hopefully with the start of Mon., Jan. 21.

Today, we are going to provide a sneak peak of our proposed world weather series with a look at the temperature in Bursa, Turkey, which is the country's fourth largest city.

Bursa is also the hope of our good friends Haviat and Karagoz (he's the dude with the beard on the right); all temps are Fahrenheit:


Athens, Georgia* 73 (sunny, slear)

Bursa, Turkey 49 (cloudy)

Chapel Hill, NC* 67 (partly sunny)

Dubai, United Arab Emirates 65 (clear)

London, England, UK 37 (rainy)

Provo, Utah* 18 (cloudy)

Utrecht, Holland 30 (cloudy)

*-American cities, each of them are also college towns.

Election Day by the #s (3 of 4)_ How Obama Won in Virginia

The image above is of Natural Bridge, which is located near Lexington, Va. Though his opponent Mitt Romney fared better in the Shenandoah Valley, with the exception of college towns like Harrisonburg, Obama dominated in the Washington, DC-suburbs, and Richmond. Obama also won in the cities of Roanoke, Danville and Norfolk.


Here is a look at the numbers for my home state:

22,179_ Votes that Obama got in the City of Roanoke, my hometown

14,116- Votes for Romney in Roanoke

19,753- Votes for Romney in Lynchburg, Va., home of Liberty University

15,905- Votes for Obama in Lynchburg, a jurisdiction he won in 2008

60.6-Percentage for Obama in Danville

38.6-Percentage for Romney in Danville

52.2- Percentage for Romney in Halifax County (South Boston)

46.6- Percentage for Obama in Halifax County

260,835- Votes Obama got in Fairfax County

173, 286- Votes Romney got in Fairfax County

81.2-Percentage Cong. Bobby Scott (D-Va) got in his reelection bid

58. 8-Percentage Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) got in his reelection bid

907- Number of votes Romney got in Rich County, Utah

83- Number of votes Obama got in Rich County, Utah

This is NOT an Endorsement-3 Third Party Candidates

Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, a former Congressman from Rocky Mount, Va., is trying to become Virginia's ninth president. Good luck!

Here is a look at Goode and two other individuals running for president as third party candidates, and yes_ one of them is actress/comedian Roseanne Barr, who also turns 60 today.

Virgil Goode: In an interview with "Huffington Post Politics," Goode, who served in Congress from 1997-2009, said that President Barack Obama had done a bad job in the White House, and if elected Mitt Romney would be just as ineffective.

Ironically, Goode, who went from Democrat to Republican to the Constitution Party, a third party with a far right agenda, could help Obama win a second term since he man from Franklin County has a loyal following in south central and southwest Virginia. He is expected to take votes away from Romney, and "Politico" shows Virginia, our home state, as a virtual dead heat which is very slightly leaning towards the Republican Party candidate.

Goode also helped Doug Wilder become Virginia's first black governor, but this was when Goode was a Democrat. No one seems to be sure if Goode actually underwent an ideological change as he has been known for being fiercely independent. Even when he was a Democrat, Goode had a more conservative voting record than the likes of Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va).

The Rocky Mount native has also been a strong supporter of guns and the tobacco industry, which went through his congressional district in areas, such as Danville and South Boston.

Goode was defeated by Democrat Tom Perriello in 2008; though Perriello was respected on the Hill for being a hard-working freshman, he was voted out by the conservative constituents in his district who favored Robert Hunt, who is now running against John Douglass to keep his house seat.

Jim Clymer is Goode's running mate.

Gary Johnson: The former Republican who served as governor of New Mexico from 1995-2003 is known for supporting radically low taxes. But, he is most known for calling for the legalization of marijuana. During his time in Santa Fe, Johnson worked to decriminalize pot. Johnson also opposes the war in Afghanistan and he has called for immediate troop withdrawal. Interestingly,  Johnson has received support from ardent liberals who see Barack Obama as being 'conservative.' And, as one might expect, Johnson is popular with the Ron Paul crowd, and he has been supported by the libertarian magazine "Reason." Johnson's running mate is Jim Gary, a California judge, who supports legalization of marijuana.

Roseanne Barr: Surprisingly, there are two presidential candidates who were born in Utah. Neither of them is Mitt Romney, who was born in Michigan, and both Barr and Rocky Anderson, who are both running to the left of Obama, are not Mormons.

Barr won an Emmy for her title role in the sitcom "Roseanne" (1998-1997), and she was a standup comedian before that. After losing the Green Party bid to Jill Stein, Barr joined the Peace and Freedom Party, which has actually been in existence since it dawned as a protest group opposed to the Vietnam war in 1968.

Cindy Sheehan, who became well-known as an anti-war activist after her son who was serving in the military was killed in Iraq, is Barr's running mate; neither of them has held political office. 


http://www.goodeforpresident2012.com

http://www.garyjohnson2012.com

http://www.reason.com

http://www.roseanneforpresident2012.org/

For a look at three other third party candidates, go to our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time:" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Cuneyt Arkin vs. Chuck Norris_ (1 of 4)

We were going to dedicate a blog entry to Turkish action movie star and matinee idol Cuneyt Arkin on Friday, which was his 75th birthday, but we fell asleep in the Salt Lake City Public Library (yes, that is a joke!; we don't even live in Utah).

Arkin is best-known in the West for his 1982 film "Dunyayi Kurtaran Adami/The Man Who Saved the World," which is more commonly known as "The Turkish Star Wars."

But, we are going to refer back to 1974 when Arkin starred in a film with Turkish starlet Fatma Girkik titled "Once Vatan," it was about a Turkish solider who goes back to Cyprus to fight the Greeks all by himself, and, of course, Cuneyt wins.


So, we are going to simply ask which actor won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1974, the year this film, which I saw circa 1993 on the TRT  (Turkish Radio Television), while I was in Antalya, Turkey.

Is the answer?:

A) Art Carney

B) Jack Nicholson

C) Gene Hackman

D) Dustin Hoffman

E) Al Pacino

We will have the answer in a few short days....

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr/

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for an entry on Chuck Norris)

http://www.slcpl.org (The Salt Lake City Public Library; it is quite a nice building, actually)

Virtual Postcard from Florida...(even though I'm not really there)

Though we are not in Florida, and certainly not at the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, which is 38 miles from Weekie Wachee where these real-life mermaids are from. Weekie Wachee Springs, which I visited as a teenager in 1984, was in danger of being closed, but it has become a state park in recent years.

I am cutting this tonight to hopefully watch some of Current-TV's coverage of the GOP convention with Cenk Uyugr, a fellow progressive Turkish-American, and former vice president Al Gore.

Michael Moore delivered a shocker today as the very left-of-century documentary filmmaker predicted that his fellow Michigan native Mitt Romney would win the election; hmmmmmmmmmm........At least, Moore is not in my home state of Virginia as we desperately need Democratic candidate and former Tim Kaine to win that now vacant U.S. Senate. I dislike his opponent so much that I refuse to mention him by name:)


We were actually hoping to see the Black Mormon Republican congressional candidate Mia Love, who is currently, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, speak, as she seems to be quite a novelty on the political scene, but we missed it. Though the likes of Bill O have made it seem like newspaper aside from "The Wall Street Journal" and "The Washington Times" are as far to the left as Radio Havana, the truth is that most newspapers in Utah appear to be giving Love very subjective love indeed.

Lastly, we heard today that Aly Raisman, the recent three-time medal winning Olympic gymnast, received an unwanted marriage proposal from some autograph seeker she didn't know; Raisman is only 18 years old!

And, finally we want to thank her teammate Gabby Douglas, who won all-around gold in London, and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn)., who will hopefully make Sean Hannity's head blow up live on Fox News one day, as they are now both following me on Twitter... so can you at:

http://www.twitter.com/Tilly70

http://www.visitflorida.com

http://www.weekiewachee.com

 http://www.current.com

GOP Tweets_Turning It Over to Bill, Cenk and Charlie

Last year, a good friend of mine, announced to the world that he woke up one morning and decided to quit blogging. He had 10 times as many followers as I did, so this was a shock. Well, now I understand how he feels. While I'm not completely stepping away from blogging, I am going to wrap up this Republican convention tweet-a-thon sooner than I expected; but I will leave the coverage up to the subjective Bill O'Reilly (from the right) and Cenk Uygur (from the left; I personally prefer Cenk over Bill O) and the objective Charlie Rose.

But, we do hope to post entries on both blogs later in the week about a few heated races, and perhaps I will post a commentary on my thoughts regarding the GOP Convention in Tampa and coverage of it.

We are posting an image of Gov. Chris Christie (R-New Jersey) and American Olympics gold medal gymnast McKayla Maroney because we were thinking the other day that if Maroney got an on an elevator with the governor that a red light would come on. If this seems a bit mean, I should point out that I'm a hefty guy myself and folks have said much meaner things on Twitter about his weight, even Republicans!

As for Maroney, we have no idea where she stands politically (she is not quite old enough to vote), but her unimpressed/disappointment look has made her an Internet sensation, or what is called a meme. She made the wince when she got a silver medal on vault in London; an event where she was highly favored to win gold.

Here are some tweets about the GOP Convention from the night, some adjustments have been made to teh tweets for clarity: 

1) @susanlbrannigan (Susan L. Brannigan): "Rachel Maddow made the Olympic gymnast 'not impressed' look there for a second. LOL!"

2) @THEHermanCain (Herman Cain, a fringe candidate who sought the GOP nomination): "Why all the focus on #Isaac & how it hurts #GOP2012? #Pray for New Orleans and let's focus on #Solutions in Tampa."

3) @BlueInRedZion (a liberal blogger from Utah referring to the heated Congressional race between Mia Love, a Republican challenger to Utah Democratic representative Jim Mattheson): "#MiaLove to speak because she is representative of all female, black Mormons as Rs for Congress."

4) @LeslieType: "I adore Chris Christie. A straight talking mind your business, do as I say New Jersey man. I love it! Repubs and Dems are not ready for him."

5) @cocaoforreal (Touche): "not a big fan of Chris Christie, but of all the GOP 'stars,' he's the most tolerable to me."

6) @TeaPartyCat (Top Conservative Cat, a liberal satirist tweeter): "Because tonight's #RNC was rained out, no speeches from Nikki Haley, Mike Huckabee or Jeb Bush. Just reruns of 2 Broke Girls. Oh, the irony!"

7) @TedCruz (Ted Cruz, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Texas; he will face Democrat Paul Sadler. Cruz has a radical Fire Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General on his campaign web site): "Speaking at@GOPConvention tomorrow night at around 8:10 CT! Please tune in and RT to remind your friends."


http://www.tytnetwork.com

http://www.current.com

http://www.billoreilly.com

http://www.charlierose.com

http://www.blueinredzion.com

http://www.cainconnections.com