The sun sets earlier than I do these days; most often it's completed its trip past the horizon before I even get a chance to stagger out of work! Yet some nights I get a view like this one. The clouds make the shot, of course. I'm just glad I had the opportunity to see it.
Click here for a larger version of the panoramic photo.
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( 2.7 / 199 )
I guess I'm going to have to ask around. The past few evenings I've noticed that the Weather Beacon is dark. Hopefully it's not in need of another costly major repair!
I have the honor of having been one of the folks charged with changing the color of the Weather Beacon to reflect the current forecast. In the 1990s when I worked in Master Control at KFYR-TV, the switch box for the Beacon was right behind where I sat at the control board. There were six clunky push buttons on the box, one for each permutation: red, flashing red, white, flashing white, green, and flashing green. The program log for KFYR-TV had occasional reminders throughout the day/night to check the Beacon.
Later on I heard that the control reverted to KFYR radio, and I think there was a span in there where nobody was really controlling it. I think each station thought the other was doing it! That would have been around the time that the radio stations' headquarters moved out of the Meyer buildings.
I also got to help Save the Beacon back in the 90's too...click here for more on that.
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( 3.2 / 218 )
A while back there was a big controversy about a letter from 41 US Senators to put pressure one Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host who used the term "phony soldiers" on the air one day. It was in reference to people like Jesse Al-Said, AKA Jesse MacBeth, who claimed to have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, witnessing atrocities committed by US soldiers, but who actually lied about their service in the US military.
North Dakota's delegation to the Senate signed a letter to the CEO of Clear Channel, the syndication partner of Limbaugh's show, attempting to pressure Clear Channel to influence what Limbaugh says on the air. Doesn't that fly right in the face of the first amendment? Here we have nearly half the Senate, acting in official capacity, attempting to influence political speech by a private citizen by bringing the presence of the US Senate to bear. This is precisely the kind of thing that the Constitution prohibits!
I don't care if it's Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken on the receiving end of this letter, it's an affront to the idea of free speech in this country. And who's jumped on board like the good little lap dogs we know them to be? Conrad and Dorgan. And you can bet they didn't do it because North Dakotans were flooding them with complaints about Rush Limbaugh.
I wrote a letter outlining the points above, because I believe in free political and religious speech. I want to beat the crap out of anyone I see burning a flag, but I won't...in fact, I believe it's their right under our nation's Constitution. I think most liberal talk show hosts are out of their skulls, but I defend their right to spout their lunacy for their dozens of listeners. So my motivation in going after our Senators is not conservative vs. liberal. It's simply a free speech issue.
Back to Gaylord's return letter to me. He states "I do not know what Mr. Limbaugh was thinking when he uttered the words "phony soldiers." Okay, Senator Conrad...if you didn't know, then why would you enter some very frightening territory, constitutionally speaking, attempting to influence political speech by using the power of the Senate as a bludgeoning tool? Because the national Democrat Party told you to, I'm sure.
Rather than behaving like a North Dakotan, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan showed their true colors and act like east coast liberals. Maybe that way they'll continue to get the support of the DNC to keep their Senate seats. In the mean time, this Congress has accomplished pretty much nothing while wasting its efforts on trampling the Constitution for political gain.
Why do people continue to vote for these idiots? Haven't they run out of farmers and senior citizens to scare into voting Democrat?
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( 3.1 / 189 )
This month's Dakota Beacon looks promising, starting with the cover! Just kidding...the photo chosen by the publisher for this month's issue comes from my "Occident by Accident" post from late September. But it really does look like there are a lot of interesting articles featured this month.
If you're unfamiliar with the Beacon, you can find a FREE trial issue at many gas stations, the Donut Hole, Denny's, and various dispenser boxes around town. You owe it to yourself to take one and give it a good read. I'm always eager to see the offerings of various North Dakota authors as well as some nationally syndicated columnists.
Of course, I must suggest that you subscribe if you like it. Sure, there are trial issues available every month, but putting out a magazine isn't free. I suggest sending publisher Steve Cates the meager subscription fee to help him keep the Beacon running. I do!
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( 3 / 212 )
While driving up 9th Street tonight I noticed a little hint of color to the state capitol building. Eager as I am for the Christmas mood to permeate our fair cities, I had hoped that the capitol's Christmas window scheme would appear the day after Thanksgiving. When that hope was unanswered, I figured December 1st would be a likely day for some guy to pull the red and green shades down in certain windows and the stars atop the building to be lit. Maybe it'll happen earlier.
As you can see in these photos, some of the windows in the front and back of the capitol building have their Christmas colors already. Does that mean that someone was going from floor to floor, pulling the required shades to form the Christmas tree in the capitol windows? I sure hope so. If it isn't in progress now, I presume the day is just around the corner.
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( 3.1 / 170 )
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