John McCain was in Great Falls today. He had a round table talk earlier in the day on national defense at a local college, then he visited the Charles Russell Museum, which is one of the most awesomest places around. And finally this evening he gave a speech at a fundraiser for the republican running for U.S. Senate here in Montana, Denny Rehberg.

McCain was very funny during his speech, then afterwards was kind and very gracious with his time. Shook lots of hands, signed lots of autographs, took lots of pictures. Personally, I just wanted to shake his hand and thank him for his many decades of service to our country. I am very happy to have gotten to do that.

McCain was very funny during his speech, then afterwards was kind and very gracious with his time. Shook lots of hands, signed lots of autographs, took lots of pictures. Personally, I just wanted to shake his hand and thank him for his many decades of service to our country. I am very happy to have gotten to do that.

In my "elder statesman" days of college I penned a column in the student newspaper when I felt like doing so, or believed anyone might care what I might write. I used my "sandbox press credentials" to have an opportunity to have 10 private minutes with George McGovern when he stopped by our urban, stark and gray Northern Ohio college campus.

It had been almost four years since he lost large in 1972, and to a kid like me barely 20, it seemed like eons ago that he had proclaimed his support for the unfortunately tormented Thomas Eagleton.


I was a proclaimed Democrat until I was 18, did more than a little research and soul searching and switched parties when I was 19. And I was a 6-1 political party minority in my voting ward after I made the decision.



I had no agenda or idea where I planned to go with my obligatory future writing when I met George McGovern. Heck, I was barely 20. I noted and remember that he answered every and any question I asked without pause, and seemingly fully....

.....and of course, without a teleprompter.

I believe to this day that George McGovern was a sincere and good American, with the best of intentions. Whether or not one agreed with his plans with the cards on the table at the time.


HB, it's ultra neat that you met our war hero, and great American....John McCain.


Just a note that our resident BaronVG is still on active duty, and that McDoc was on active duty as well.

As was Husker, and I believe all were on active duty during "official wartime."


I think Surber may have been, too.

I personally angled for good grades and an ROTC brass ring if ever needed, and it was not.

Study: Red states more charitable, but religion more a factor than wealth

Published August 20, 2012

Residents in Republican-leaning states give more of their money to charity than those in Democrat-leaning states, according to a new study.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's study released this week found the eight states with residents who gave the highest percentage of their income to charity in 2008 also voted that year for Republican presidential nominee John McCain. And the seven states in which residents donated the lowest percentage of their income that year voted for President Obama, based on 2008 IRS information.

The eight top charitable states were Utah, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Idaho, Arkansas and Georgia, as reported first by The Politico. On the other end of the spectrum were Wisconsin, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.

And don't assume the biggest givers were the wealthier states. Mississippi and Idaho rank among the lowest in the country in per-capita income.

That suggests other factors are involved, and the study’s authors said the reasons for the differences were in part a function of religion and a region’s political philosophy about “the role of government versus charity.”

“Regions of the country that are deeply religious are more generous than those that are not,” the study's authors said.

"The regional differences in giving are stark,” the authors also said. “In states like Utah and Mississippi, the typical household gives more than 7 percent of its income to charity after taxes, housing, food and other living expenses, while the average household in Massachusetts and three other New England states gives less than 3 percent.”

Two of the top nine states -- Utah and Idaho -- have high numbers of Mormon residents, who have a tradition of tithing at least 10 percent of their income to the church. And the remaining states in the top nine are in the Bible Belt, the study found.

The study included only taxpayers who said they had incomes of $50,000 or more.

I don't know why democrats hate the poor and needy so much...

Hillbilly wrote:I don't know why democrats hate the poor and needy so much...

What I can't figure out is why the poor and needy think that democrats like them so much.

On the other end of the spectrum were Wisconsin, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.

If you drop Wisconsin, I am not surprised based on my time in those states.

In todays installment of Hillbilly's Global Warming My Ass ....

When I was in Two Medicine area of Glacier Park over the weekend I learned from a ranger that the last glacier in the Two Medicine Valley melted away 65 years ago.

My question is, if glaciers were melting away before SUV's can we still blame Global Warming?

Certainly you/we/they can still blame global warming! The real question is whether it's the humans that caused it or not.

Strictly speaking, however, the glaciers going away indicates "local climate change, or else population growth leading to more chunks of ice being chopped out of the glaciers for other purposes such as keeping your Rainier Beer cold" rather than global warming per se.

or else population growth leading to more chunks of ice being chopped out of the glaciers for other purposes such as keeping your Rainier Beer cold

tee hee hee

Actually, mankind was releasing pollution of one form or another into the atmosphere well over 65 years ago.

Time is easy to waste, and sometimes hard to mark.

The US ended the terrorism reign and growth and terror intentions of the Japanese rulers with two well placed and appropriate nuclear blasts over 67 years ago.

The industrial revolution was spewing ash and who knows what into the atmosphere from the mid-19th century.

I'm not a tree hugger, though I sometimes respect and admire their presence and passion.

I don't vote or not vote for candidates these days on the basis of environmental issues.

The issues important to me are having a strong national defense, a balanced budget, a simplified tax code, and less government in our every day lives. Though I understand the needs of people in cities differ from the needs of people in the Peoria's, and those things need to be addressed by our elected representatives.

I've got my eye on global warming and the causes and consequences and relative importance of future monitoring.

It's only prudent.

You gotta love environmentalists. As we say in the country ... Bless his heart...

First of all, several glaciers formed the two medicine valley, and I said the LAST one melted away 65 years ago. The others had already gone.

And I actually lied to you accidentally. I was just fooling around and didn't think I needed to watch my words real carefully. But, in fact, the last glacier that formed the two medicine valley is actually still there and visible, it just has not been big enough to be classified a glacier the last 65 years.

There used to be a huge glacier in the park called Blackfoot Glacier. In 1939 it melted in half and is now considered to be two separate glaciers, Blackfoot and Jackson.

Let me paste for you what scientists said about Glacier Park before liberals tried to ram cap n trade down our throats ...

.

Glacier National Park is dominated by mountains which were carved into their present shapes by the huge glaciers of the last ice age; these glaciers have largely disappeared over the last 15,000 years. Evidence of widespread glacial action is found throughout the park in the form of U-shaped valleys, glacial cirques, arêtes and large outflow lakes radiating like fingers from the base of the highest peaks.

Since the end of the ice ages, various warming and cooling trends have occurred. The last recent cooling trend was during the Little Ice Age which took place approximately between 1550 and 1850. During the Little Ice Age, the glaciers in the park expanded and advanced, although to nowhere near as great an extent as they had during the Ice Age.

Coincidentally, the park region was first explored in detail near the end of the Little Ice Age and a systematized survey began in which the number and size of glaciers was documented on maps and by photographic evidence. Much of this late 19th century work, however, was undertaken to lure tourism into the region or to search for mineral wealth, not out of a particular desire to document glaciers.

After the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850, the glaciers in the park retreated moderately until the 1910s. Between 1917 and 1926, the retreat rate rose rapidly and continued to accelerate through the 1930s. A slight cooling trend from the 1940s until 1979, helped to slow the rate of retreat and in a few examples some glaciers even advanced a few tens of meters. However, during the 1980s, the glaciers in the park began a steady period of loss of glacial ice, which continues into the 2000s.

.

As I've said here before, there have been heating and cooling trends for a long time. Don't be duped. There is already evidence that's been reported recently that some of the earths glaciers are starting to grow again. (I posted the article here a while back)

I would bet cash that if you go pick up some info from Obama's Department of the Interior on Glacier National Park a lot of the highlighted information above will not be included. Intellectually dishonest, yet they are all for education. GOP hates education.

Both parties manipulate "education" for their own evil purposes. Republicans wish the masses to be uneducated, and Democrats wish the public to be mis-educated.

LOL

Damn, you are on a roll lately, Vermont!

If the Pleistocene glacier had not retreated there would be no Cleveland, Cleveland Browns or Cleveland Indians. There would be no Lake Erie to build stadiums by. Sometimes glacial retreat works out OK.