Words of wisdom from Andrew Klavan

Like many of you I am on several mailing list. Some of them are of a group nature and other are simply lists maintained by individuals so they can send a message to a number of contacts all at once from their address book. This link came from one of those messages from an individual and while the video that it takes you to is very short it is also in my opinion very profound. So, click on the link below and take a few minutes to listen to what the gentleman has to say. Like the Gettysburg Address it is a short speech but one that we should all hear.

Andrew Klavan On Cluture

What did President Obama really say about abortion?

I tend to be very opinionated on some things in life and abortion is one of them. I freely admit that I have come full circle in my lifetime on this issue. For a very long time I held the position that abortion was morally wrong and that it is something that I would never permit in my family, but that it was also absolutely none of the governments business and should not be a matter to be decided by lawmakers or enforced one way or the other by law.

After a lot of study of the issue talking with friends and family and reading as much material as I can find I have come 180 degrees on my stance. I now firmly believe that from the moment of conception that baby, that child, is a human being just the same as you and I. I also firmly believe that there is no difference between someone taking a knife and plunging it into the chest of another person and a doctor performing an abortion. Lets not mince words, they both are acts of murder, the taking of a human life. In the case of abortion an innocent and defenceless life.

President Obama's recent speech at Notre Dame while noble sounding I found somewhat disingenuous. He speaks of finding a middle ground and of being tolerant of other peoples positions on the issue. Yet in the end I think actions speak louder than words and all actions in the matter are decidedly one sided.

I am not very good at expressing ideas in print so when I listened to this segment of a talk show that I enjoy I heard my own thoughts expressed much better than I could say them myself. If you have time please click on the link and think about the discussion that you hear. I think you will find it both interesting and informative.

Click to listen to Issues Etc on President Obama's speech.

Thoughts of mothers

I'm sure you all get emails from friends, we all have mailing list that we send items to on a regular basis. Mostly jokes and humorous things but also some that have a more serious tone or a message that you want to pass on to others. A friend of mine sent me one of those messages in an email today probably because Mothers Day just passed, and it touched me enough that I wanted to share it with others. The fact that I lost my mother while she was still relatively young, not even sixty two yet, caused this one to pull at my heart strings just a little harder than most. Read on and you will see why. I can tell you that this message is one that we should all heed.





MOTHER

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to
dinner and a movie.

She said, 'I love you, but I know this other woman loves you and I would
Love to spend some time with you.'

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my Mother, who has
been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children
had made it possible to visit her only occasionally.

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.
'What's wrong, are you well,' she asked?

My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a
surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.

'I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you,' I
responded 'just the two of us.' She thought about it for a moment, and then
said,'I would like that very much.'

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit
nervous. When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be
nervous about our date. She waited in the door with her coat on.

She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to
celebrate her last wedding anniversary. She smiled from a face that was as
radiant as an angel's.

'I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were
impressed,' she said, as she got into the car. 'They can't wait to hear
about our meeting.'

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and
cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady.

After we sat down, I had to read the menu.

Her eyes could only read large print.. Half-way through the entrees, I
lifted my eyes and saw Mother sitting there staring at me.

A nostalgic smile was on her lips..

'It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small,' she
said. 'Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favor,' I responded.

During the dinner , we had an agreeable conversation nothing extraordinary
but catching up on recent events of each other's life. We talked so much
that we missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, 'I'll
go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.' I agreed..

'How was your dinner date?' asked my wife when I got home. 'Very nice,
much more so than I could have imagined,' I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack.

It happened so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to do anything for
her. Sometime later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant
receipt from the same place Mother and I had dined.

An attached note said: 'I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I
could be there; but, nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you and
the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me.

'I love you, son'

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: 'I love
YOU' and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve.

Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time
they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till some 'other' time.

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've
had a baby... somebody doesn't know that once you're a mother, 'normal' is
history.

Somebody said you can't love the second child as much as you love the
first... somebody doesn't have two or more children.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and
delivery....somebody never watched her 'baby' get on the bus for the first
day of
kindergarten... or on a plane headed for military 'boot camp.'

Somebody said a Mother can stop worrying after her child gets married...
somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a
mother's heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother's job is done when her last
child leaves home.... somebody never had grandchildren..

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell
her... somebody isn't a mother.

Pass this along to all the GREAT 'mothers' in your life and to everyone
who ever had a mother.

This isn't just about being a mother; it's about appreciating the people
in your lives while you have them..... no matter who that person is!

Watch your thoughts, they become words..
Watch your words, they become actions..
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become character.
Watch your character, for it
becomes...your destiny.



Life is not waiting for the storm to pass its learning how to dance in the rain.

Here is an interesting story

A friend sent me this story about the real pilots in the movie "Top Gun" and I thought I would share it with you. One of the lead pilots in the movie is piloting the space shuttle on its next mission to work on the Hubble Telescope. If you are interested you can read the story here.

TOP GUN GOES TO SPACE

Say "Hello........."

In addition to having fun with computers and reading books I am an Amateur Radio Operator or as some call us a "ham" radio operator. It is a great hobby that has brought me hours of pleasure, introduced me to many new friends and helped me advance my work career by keeping me in touch with the latest technology. As the video below will show you anyone can get involved with the hobby and join in on the fun. If you think you might be interested after watching the video leave me a comment and I will help you get started.

Geometry, traffic lights and Hulton road

Fundamental geometry tells us that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Despite this known fact if you live in Western Pennsylvania, especially at this time of the year, you know that the shortest distance between two points is under construction. If you don't believe that just get in your car and drive around for while.

While you are out driving, particularly if it is during the morning rush hour, and you happen to travel down Allegheny River Boulevard to Hulton road you may notice that traffic backs up quit a bit from the traffic signal at the intersection. Now considering the volume of traffic that traverses the Allegheny River from Oakmont to Harmarville each day this should come as no surprise.

When the property that was formerly an Exxon gas station was sold and turned into a Wall Greens pharmacy one of the requirements was that a traffic signal be placed where Allegheny River Boulevard and Allegheny Avenue intersect with Hulton Road. I was somewhat fearful of the effects of putting a traffic signal at these intersections thinking it would add to what was already a bottle neck in the traffic flow and make matters worse.

Much to my surprise a good deal of engineering work went into synchronizing both lights at the railroad crossing and the other signal at the Harmarville side of the bridge. I think overall it has made rush hour traffic flow at a better pace than before with one exception.

It is this exception that leads me to write this blog entry. Human nature being what it is there will always be some in a group that are impatient and will try to beat the system. Such is the case with the traffic signals on Hulton Road. It now seems that during morning rush hour people who can not wait on Hulton road for the normal traffic cycle are turning off at Wade Lane or Fifth Street and then proceeding down Woodland Avenue to Oakmont Avenue where when they reach the light at Hulton road they have the right of way making a right turn onto Hulton Road.

When enough people do this you can't get any vehicles that are north bound on the boulevard who have to make a left turn to get into the line of traffic approaching the bridge through the light on a normal cycle. Needless to say this causes much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the people waiting to make a left at the light, one of whom is my wife Linda who is riding in the passenger side of my vehicle. I try to keep my cool in congested traffic and not let it raise my blood pressure more than a point or two, Linda on the other hand has to vent when situations like this occur and guess who she vents at? That is another reason that I'm writing this in the blog.

So what is to be done about this? I plan on starting by calling the mayor and describing the problem and asking if there is anything that the borough can do to help. Hulton Road is a state highway and there may be limitations that the local municipality can place on traffic flow. It would be nice if there were no left turns permitted onto Wade Lane and Fifth Street from 07:00 to 09:00 AM Monday through Friday. Or better yet no left turn from Oakmont Avenue onto Hulton road for the same time duration. That would probably be a simpler alternative.

So if you live in town or have to travel Hulton Road during rush hour you might want to consider contacting "the powers that be" and expressing your interest in seeing that all that money spent on a study to determine traffic flow and signal timing isn't circumvented by a group of drivers taking a short cut to gain a minuet or two in their daily commute. If you do so please let me know.

As a side bar not directly related to this posting I haven't quite figured out which direction Allegheny River Boulevard takes on the compass. I have heard the local police department during radio communications refer to going east or west on Allegheny River Boulevard and the same for Allegheny Avenue. If you cross the river the Norfolk Southern Railroad refers to the trains moving on the single track that run parallel to the river as being either east bound or west bound. The first time I heard a locomotive tell dispatch that they were proceeding east on the single track past mile post 66.8 I wanted to jump in the car and rush down to see how the train was going to float across the river to go east!

All public safety agencies have always referred to Rt. 28, which also parallels the river and the railroad tracks, as either north or south bound. I think they do this just to try to confuse me. There, now I have vented and I feel better. Thank you for reading this far.

Words of wit and wisdom for the day

"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, afriend, abroad, an introduction,in solitude a solace and in society anornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage." - Joseph Addison