In Hoc Anno Domini (In the year of our Lord)

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?



And the voice Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A14, December 25, 2010

Kids - Why we speak English today, The Battle of Britain

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” -Winston Churchill

Seventy years ago in August 1940, civilization as we know it almost ended. In late August 1940 the British Royal Air force (RAF) was about to collapse from the onslaught from the Nazi Luftwaffe who were attacking their RAF airfields, radar centers, and support installations. The Luftwaffe sought air superiority over England so they could provide air cover for a Germany invasion of England, the last free country in Europe standing against the Nazi war machine. August 30th and 31st were among the worst attacks of the battle.

Below is the trailer for the movie “The Battle of Britain” which shows the RAF air fields being pounded by the Luftwaffe.



Few individuals realize that one in eight of the fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain were Polish. The Polish pilots helped England fight Germany after the collapse of Poland. The Polish fighter pilots had a 6:1 kill ratio against the Nazis compared to 3:1 of the British.



On August 24th, 1940 a German bomber accidently dropped its bomb payload on the city of London. It was an accident and everyone knew it. But Winston Churchill saw an opportunity to goad the Nazis into changing their attack strategy and ordered the RAF to bomb Berlin at night continually after August 24th.

By September 4th, an enraged Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to focus their attacks on London rather than on attacking RAF installations, a fatal error. This gave the RAF just enough time to recover to continue fighting. The Nazi’s did not realize how close they came to destroying the RAF and England herself.

[Credit to video posts from Soundtrackcollector and Henryvkeiper]

TX-MI Houston and Detroit Zoos

The Detroit Zoo was one of the first in the United States to be cageless designed after the Tierpark Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg Germany. There are few cages in the Detroit Zoo animal exhibits. Anything that may resemble a cage is usually glass enclosed. Even most of the birds fly free in the Matilda Free Flight Avery and penguins swim free in the Penguinarium.

The great exhibits in the Detroit Zoo include the Great Apes of Harambee, Amphibiville, the Holden Museum of Living Reptiles and the River Otter Exhibit. The crown jewel is The Arctic Ring of Life with free swimming polar bears and seals above your head as you walk through an underwater tunnel.



We visited the Houston Zoo last week but noticed they have many cages. We still have a lot to learn about the Houston Zoo and we became members. Important to any zoo visit for the boys is food. Below is feeding time at the zoo for Steven and Anthony eating their core food source: pizza.

[Photo credit of The Arctic Ring of Life to http://blog.mlive.com]

Kids - Blues Brothers on a mission from God

It’s probably been a year since we’ve watched the Blues Brothers starting John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Hard to believe it’s been thirty years since they first released the movie in 1980.

So many “old” actors made appearances in this film such as John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Henry Gibson and even Twiggy. My sons didn't recognize any of these actors, even Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia in Star Wars.

Steve asked me how do I knew all these people. Dad’s been around the block.

One of our favorite scenes below, the mall chase.



[Video post by battaginemon.]

Kids - Deo Gratias for Father Solanus Casey

One of my greatest heroes is Father Solanus Casey. I was four years old when he died on July 31, 1957 at the age of 86. What inspires me most about Father Solanus was his simple but powerful faith and belief in the goodness of God. Father Solanus described atheists or anyone who doubted the existence of a higher power as “spiritually insane”. Carved around his grave are the words “Blessed Be God In All His Designs.” He is in the process of becoming a saint but probably not in my lifetime.



Solanus could never become a Catholic priest today. He would be deemed intellectually and academically unqualified and a failure by most standards. Having spent ten years studying to become a priest he barely completed and performed so poorly his superiors made him a “simplex” or mass priest. Considered intellectually deficient he was barred and prevented from hearing confessions, instruct classes in religion, or deliver doctrinal sermons. He became a sacristan who basically took care of the church linens, usually a role for a lay person and something of a put down for a priest. After several years of being a sacristan he received a big promotion to doorkeeper. It seemed he had a whole lot of time on his hands and he used it to strengthen his relationship with God.

To make a long story short he personally knew God. Perhaps as many as 1,000,000+ people have asked Solanus to talk to God on their behalf. Me included. Maybe a quarter of a million people met and spoke with Solanus during his lifetime. Solanus never worked a miracle. He asked God and people to perform miracles. Other times he would tell people not to expect any miracle such as my grandmother Pearl Paultanis.

When Solanus grew old the Capuchins tried to shield him from people seeking his prayers by retiring and transferring him to Huntington, Indiana. My grandmother Paultanis developed diabetes resulting in blindness. My Uncle Vince drove my grandmother from Detroit to see Solanus. Even though in retirement, he met with her immediately. My impression is that my grandmother was friends with Solanus. Solanus told her the blindness was God’s will and accept the blindness which she did with great solace.

He is associated with thousands of miracles, most undocumented and untold. I was once speaking with one of my physicians about Solanus. He told me when he was a little boy he had a terrible ear ache problem which the doctors could not cure. In desperation his mother took him to St. Bonaventure’s to meet Father Solanus. Solanus blessed his ear and the pain ceased. The doctored looked at me in amazement and said, “Now that I think about it, I have never ever had an ear ache in my life since that blessing.”



For the first time in years we have missed the Father Solanus Anniversary of this Death mass held at St. Bonaventure in Detroit now that we are in Houston. But Solanus is always in our hearts and minds wherever we are.

Father Solanus Guild

[Photo of Solanus tomb by Ottenbreit, Solanus portrait by Solanus.org]

Kids - Because of Winn Dixie

Summer reading requirement for entering Anthony’s new grade at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is “Because of Winn Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo. I saw Anthony reading it at the end of the last school year and he claimed to have read it after we recently checked a copy out of the local public library. In Texas we are on Central Standard Time. I didn’t see Anthony read it this summer but he is on Vampire Standard Time and stays up sometimes until 4 am so he may have read it

I just finished reading it and gave him a pop quiz to make sure he remembered the main characters, plot and incidents and he did very well. I also rented the movie from Blockbuster. Anthony and I watched it today. The movie screen play took artistic liberty with many scenes created from thin air. Something of a modern version of Pollyanna.

For some reason it triggered a memory of an incident when I was in the 7th grade. I had to do an oral book report and I had chosen a book called “The Wooden Horse” by Eric Williams. It was a true World War II story about British aviators set in the German Stalag Luft III POW camp who used a exercise work horse to conceal their tunnel digging to escape the camp. Three officers escaped the camp and found freedom in neutral Sweden.


I received an “A” on my oral book report but never read the book. The Sunday night before the oral book report was due the 1950 movie “The Wooden Horse” was on television so I watched the movie. Boys prefer to watch and visualize three dimensional things rather than read which is why video games are so popular.

I wish I had the Internet when I was young and below is a great World War II blog that notes this escape and a host of weaponry.

Wooden Horse

[Image credit of Winn Dixie to franklincollege.edu and Wooden Horse to anonymous-generaltopic.blogspot]

Biz - Standard Oil saved the Sperm Whales?

I’ve been very slowly reading “The Prize” by Daniel Yergin which chronicles the development of oil. In the 19th century, lighting was provided by whale oil and not petroleum. There was no electricity at this point. Sperm Whales were being hunted to extinction.



Specifically, “Abraham Gesner saved more whales than Green Peace ever will. In 1849, Gesner devised a method to distill kerosene from petroleum. In 1846 there were 735 ships in the whaling fleet. Thirty years later, in 1876, the fleet was down to 39 ships. Kerosene had taken over the whale oil market.” (See the link below.)

Abraham Gesner

But kerosene was far more dangerous than whale oil. It was prone to be as explosive as gunpowder and was responsible for many injuries and fires. John D. Rockefeller addressed this problem by developing a standardized from of kerosene that was safe and reliable. Hence, the name “Standard” Oil. Consumers knew it was safe. Rockefeller made a fortune on kerosene. That pesky by-product, gasoline was discarded or sold as a lubricant.

Rockefeller developed the refining and distribution systems both domestically and internationally. He was so efficient and ruthless he created a monopoly which was eventually broken up by the United States Government.

Thomas Edison developed electricity that replaced kerosene for lighting but Henry Ford mass produced automobiles that began an insatiable thirst for gasoline.

[Picture credit to itsnature.org]

Kids - Bonnie's Sargassum Mess

Today was the second week we visited the Galveston Island State Park. Last Friday we visited the historic Strand distinct in Houston before we went swimming at the State Park. Unknown to us, almost all the structures and the sand dunes at Galveston Island State Park were destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

We were well aware of the damage caused by Ike when we visited Houston in January 2009. We drove through the Crystal Beach area east of Galveston when we visited Houston during Christmas Vacation 2008 and saw the incredible devastation.

Last Friday when we visited the beach I was amazed how clean the beach and water were even though the water color was a sandy brown. There are several geological reasons for this . Part of this brown color is runoff from the Mississippi River carried by strong Gulf currents plus nearby rivers. The Galveston area is very shallow water and the wave action churns up sand and sediment. Apparently, shallow water in the Galveston area has been brownish for several thousand years. Once you go out several hundred yards into deeper water, the water color is as blue as Florida or California.

This Friday was totally different and disappointing. The brewing tropical storm “Bonnie” seemed to blow in brown Sargassum seaweed from the open ocean. It was everywhere on the beach and in the water. The waves were much larger than the week before but with the seaweed in the water it wasn’t the same as the prior week.

Below are comparison photos of the beach looking eastward from last Friday and today.


Last week, ever so clean.


This week, so much seaweed.

Even still, the boys managed to have fun digging in the sand which they enjoy most of all and playing on rafts in rough water. Notice the level of wave action from the two different weeks.


Last week.


This week.

Kids - First Moon Landing 41th Anniversary

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." – John F. Kennedy in 1961

I was a teenager on July 20, 1969 when the Eagle lunar module from Apollo 11 touched down on the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface. It seemed there was nothing we could not accomplish. The spinoff of technology from the space program was enormous whose benefits we enjoy today.



[Credit video post to NASAexplorer]

Kids - We are blind in a sea of light

Steven asked me why there are rainbows around water. I told him it was a natural phenomena that displays the visible spectrum of light.

In high school my physics professor would tell us “We are Blind in a Sea of Light” when beginning to discuss electromagnetic radiation (light). We can only visually see a very small portion of light that exists in the Universe. We cannot see television, radio, cell phone, or internet signals all around us yet we are aware of their existence because we use devices which depend upon this light for information.

In the video below, visible light is represented by only 1 inch on an electromagnetic scale of over 2,000 miles.



The video below is a song about the electromagnetic spectrum which can be used to torture children. Actually an informative video from the Physics is Fun channel on You Tube. Given their singing they should not quit their day jobs. There are numerous physics experiments on the Physics is Fun channel.



[Credit to sparkleystitch for the scale video and “The Electromagnetic Spectrum Song” by Emerson & Wong Yann (Singapore) posted by phyisfun]

Kids – Schlitterbahn Water Park

Last week we visited Galveston and went to the Schlitterbahn Water Park. We’ve been to a lot of water parks.

In Houston we visited Splash Town in June before the public school finished as it was not so crowded. I refer to it as Cash Town because we laid out a lot of cash for little value. The boys are not too keen on water slides and prefer waves and sand. The wave pool wasn’t always working and no one was allowed in the deep portion of the pool. At Cash Town it seems you have to pay for everything.

Schlitterbahn had more bang for the buck, was cleaner and they didn’t nickel and dime you to death like Splash (Cash) Town. The wave pool was not too good but they had the best lazy river we have ever seen. In addition, they had a rapids river which was very cool. Steven was a little under the weather but we still managed to go down a few slides.


Anthony down a slide.


My niece Laura down a slide.


Dad down a slide.

Kids - Gun Myths

My sons do a lot of things revolving around guns via video games, YouTube videos or play guns. They have numerous Nerf guns including but not limited to the Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 Blaster. They also have numerous low velocity air guns for use only in the garage shooting range.



Steven and Anthony in the garage shooting range.

They are taught to respect and always be careful with guns. They are taught in real life there are no reset buttons when someone is killed. They are taught what they see in movies is make believe.

The humor site Cracked.com recently had an article on ridiculous gun myths from Hollywood.

For example, a M4 Carbine holds 30 bullets in its magazine. Some fully automatic weapons fire 700 round per minute so it doesn’t take long to empty the magazine. In the movies, it seems as if there are infinite bullets in the magazines. Watch how fast the magazine empties.



Below is video of an AK-47 with a 75 round magazine.



In video games and in movies you can fire forever but in real life there are limits to how often you can fire a weapon.

[Credit to video posts of Killerofdoom1012 and 1964hmc]

Kids - The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

In 2008 we attended the July 4th Detroit Symphony Orchestra outdoor performance of Salute to America at Greenfield Village. The photo below was taken before the performance showing boys being boys. We have work to do in the fine arts culture department.



Steven and Anthony

It featured real cannons firing during the playing of Tchaikovsky’s Overture of 1812. Below is video footage of the actual performance.



Better footage of the Overture of 1812.



[Credit Greenfield Village to Nrutas74 and VovaDanilov]

Kids - "Ich bin ein Berliner"

We attached the movie “The Lives of Others” produced in Germany which won an academy award for best foreign language film in 2006. It was a political thriller and human drama.

The setting is just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent unification of East and West Germany. It showed the oppression of communism and various tactics used by the East German State Secret Police or Stasi to monitor the population via informants, wire tapping homes, intimidation and control of the media and arts.

I explained to my sons about the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. How the economic and social conditions were so poor under communism/socialism that communist leaders sealed off the free part of Berlin in August 1961 to prevent people fleeing communism. They built a wall and barbed wire fencing and shot anyone trying to escape to the West.

“I am a Berliner” was one of John F. Kennedy’s greatest speeches in 1963.



I had thought I would never see the Berlin Wall fall in my lifetime until Ronald Reagan become president.



[Credit video post by thehistoricalarchieve for JFK and forguigon or RR]

TX-MI Universities of Michigan & Texas, A Whale of a Connection

The other weekend we visited the Texas Natural Science Center at the University of Texas in Austin. In Michigan, we would often visit the Exhibit Museum of Natural History at the University of Michigan usually after visiting the Ann Arbor Hands on Science Museum.

In the late 1990’s we made a modest contribution to Dr. Philip D. Gingerich’s whale evolution exhibit at the University of Michigan. We were surprised to see a whale evolution exhibit based upon on Dr. Gingerich’s work at the University of Texas.

Dr. Gingerich’s Website

There is also a flying dinosaur connection. In the Great Hall at the Texas Natural Science is the largest animal to ever fly, the Texas Ptersaur with a wing span of about forty feet discovered in West Texas in 1971. A few months after Steven was born we made a modest contribution to the Exhibit Museum for its Pterodactyl exhibit in 1998. Below is Steven’s certificate of appreciation.



Unfortunately, we didn’t see any Mastodon’s at the University of Texas Natural Science Center. Below is Anthony’s certificate of appreciation for the modest contributions we made for the Exhibit Museum Mastodon exhibit.

Kids - Gettysburg Address

Gettysburg Address

All school children should be required to memorize this greatest speech of all time.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as spoken by Jeff Daniels:



[Credit video posted by SkylineProductions]

Kids - Pickett's Charge, The March to Mortality

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke 23:46

General Lewis “Lo” Armistead understood on July 4,1863, this would be his last charge. He knew there was little chance of survival marching more than a mile over an open field against the Union in a defensive position behind a stone wall. Below is a picture of Anthony and Steven at the tree line before we walked retraced General Armistead’s march over the field to the stone wall at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.



Below is a video of Pickett’s division prior to their march from the movie “Gettysburg”. The Army of Northern Virginia would never fully recover from the slaughter of Pickett’s Charge suffering 50% casualties and devastating the officer corps. General Armistead’s best friend, Winfield Hancock was commanding the Union forces on the other side of the field.



This is the ending sequence of the march. The gentleman who yells “Let’s go Boys!” after General Armistead sticks his saber through his hat was Ted Turner in a cameo role who financed the production of “Gettysburg”.



We found the marker at the stone wall where General Armistead was mortally wounded, who died two days later in a Union field hospital. He was eventually buried in Maryland, next to his uncle George Armistead, the commander of the garrison at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore (War of 1812 against the British) which inspired the Star Spangled Banner.

The actor who portrayed General Armistead, Richard Jordon, died of a brain tumor before in the movie Gettysburg was released.

[Credit to Turner Pictures, “Gettysburg” and the video posts from madhess1 and rob9641]

Boys The Colonel Who Saved the United States

Some American Civil War historians credit Colonel Joshua Chamberlain who led the 20th of Maine in the battle for Little Round Top on July 2, 1963, as saving the United States from defeat at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.


(Steven, Mom, Dad, Anthony)

General Robert E. Lee invaded the North with the intention of destroying the Army of the Potomac, possibly seizing Washington D.C. and ending the Civil War firmly establishing the Confederate States of America as a sovereign country.

The 20th of Maine rushed up Little Round Top on the afternoon of July 2nd to protect the extreme left of the Union lines and were given orders to hold the hill at all costs. Failure to do so would have resulted in the Confederates attacking Union lines from the rear. Given the prior battle performance experiences of the North this could have resulted complete panic and defeat for the Union at Gettysburg.

The 20th of Main held the hill after numerous charges from the 15th Alabama but ran out of ammunition. Colonel Chamberlain knew he could not withdraw or the whole Union line would collapse. He was a professor of Grammar from Bowdoin College and ordered a text-book bayonet charge flanking maneuver with his left wing to swing down as a closing door on the Rebels. This maneuver took the Rebels completely by surprise who broke and ran thus protecting the Union lines.

Below is a scene from the movie “Gettysburg” of the charge.




[Credit video post from madhess1]

Biz - The Dow Jones Industrial Average

The other day I attended a presentation by Dan Sanders who is the CEO of Executive Wealth Management on general economic conditions. Mr. Sander had very insightful comments.

How do you explain the Dow Jones Industrial Average to ten and twelve year olds?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a general psychological statistical indicator of wealth in the United States. It’s a tracking scorecard of the of what people believe will be the future monetary value of thirty prominent companies. Some of these prominent companies include Walt Disney, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Caterpillar. The Dow Jones Industrial Average measures their wealth by the daily common stock price value of these companies which trade every business day in the stock markets. When you hear people talk about the stock market they are usually referring to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Common stock is where a person owns a financial interest in a company similar to owning a video game. For example, you can trade your ownership or your financial interest in a video game at GameStop by buying or selling a particular game. The market demand for a video game will determine how much money you pay or receive. Notice how the newest and innovative games are much more expensive as people are willing to pay more for these games rather than for older games where people don’t see much playing value. Game values are always changing depending how people perceive the value of the game.

You may hear people talk about bulls and bears. A person who is a bull or bullish believes stock prices will rise. A person who is a bear or bearish believes stock prices will fall. The stock market goes through cycles. When prices rise it is called a bull market. When prices decline it is called a bear market. Below is a graph showing the value of the Dow from 1900 through 2004 similar to the one presented by Dan Sanders. The red indicates bear market conditions and the green indicates a bull market. Notice how the price value increases and remember our discussions on money supply growth.



Dad believes the policies, vision and optimism of Ronald Reagan led to the greatest bull market sometimes referred to as the Reagan Bull market from 1982 until 2000 when stock values increased 1,214%. This period saw the greatest economic, technological and productivity expansion in human history. It was achieved by limiting government, cutting taxes, and allowing individuals freedom to create. This period taught us there is no limit to what we can achieve.

Below is a short video clip of President Reagan who is not often spoken about in your classes talking about government..





[Credit on graph to http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2005/12/100-year-dow-jones-industrials-chart/, video post by ThePoliticalEagle]

Kids - The American Revolution

It’s that time of the year that we watch our video set of “The American Revolution” produced by the History Channel and A&E Home Video I purchased many years ago. There are six videos in the collection each being approximately fifty minutes in length. The Revolution was an eight year struggle from 1775 through 1783. It was incited by America’s original bloggers, the Sons of Liberty comprised of individuals such as Samuel Adams.

Volume One: The Conflict Ignites
Volume Two: 1776
Volume Three: Washington and Arnold (Kelsey Grammer as Benedict Arnold)
Volume Four: The World At War
Volume Five: England’s Last Chance
Volume Six: Birth of the Republic

Below is a video glimpse of the Series:




[Credit video post from USSRman45]

Kids - Men of Honor

“It’s not a sin to get knocked down. It’s a sin to stay down.” - Carl Brashear

We watched a excellent movie this weekend called “Men of Honor” starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr. inspired by the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer, Carl Brashear who was the first African-American master diver in the United States Navy.

In 1948 President Harry Truman issued an executive order ending the segregation of race in the United States Military in effect rescinding the segregation order of President Woodward Wilson in 1917. Carl Brashear enlisted in the Navy in 1948 but soon learned that racial hatred and bigotry is not easily erased with presidential executive orders. The movie displayed the ugliness of the Jim Crow laws but much more importantly the greatness of the human spirit.

"The Navy Diver is not a fighting man, he is a salvage expert. If it is lost underwater, he finds it. If it's sunk, he brings it up. If it's in the way, he moves it. If he's lucky, he will die young, 200 feet beneath the waves, for that is the closest he'll ever get to being a hero." – Billy Sunday

Below is the video clip of the theatrical trailer for “Men of Honor.”



Part of the movie involved a “Broken Arrow” incident. A “Broken Arrow” is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon.

On January 17, 1966, a United States Air Force bomber collided midair with a refueling aircraft resulting in thermonuclear hydrogen bomb becoming lost in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain near the town of Palomares. It took eighty days to find and retrieve the bomb at a depth of about 2,800 feet. Thirty three ships and Carl Brashear was very involved in the search and recovery operation.

Below is a link to a website dedicated to Carl Brashear who died in July 2006.
Carl Brashear Site

[Credit to 20th Century Fox and videopost DFKDFK11 ]

Kids - The Sun never sets on our family

At its zenith it was said the sun never sets on the British Empire because the sun was always shinning somewhere on British territory.

In 1821, a Scottish newspaper called the Caledonian Mercury wrote, “On her dominions the sun never sets; before his evening rays leave the sires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson [Australia] and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior [Ontario], his eye opens upon the Mouth of the Ganges [India].”



My American grandfather Andrew Haggerty was of Irish ancestry who had a different opinion of the bloody English as he would describe them saying the truth is the sun never sets on the British Empire because God wouldn't trust the British in the dark.

Yet his great grandparents Thyne were English and his wife Rose’s grandparents the McKay’s Scottish. My father’s parents were and Polish and my father told me his great grandfather was part of the Russian Cossacks. On the other side of the world my wife was born and raised in the Philippines and has Spanish heritage in her family. She is American citizen.

So the sun never sets on our family as we have relatives on different sides of the world and the sun is always shinning upon our relatives somewhere in the world.




[credit: video “The Might of the British Empire!! Posted by 97Coats; US/Philippine flag from cia.gov ]

Kids - Follow or Don't Follow Military Orders

Not too long ago, I was watching a Special Victims Unit (NBC) episode titled “Authority” guest starring Robin Williams as an engineer with authority issues. Steven began watching the program and I was explaining to him a famous psychology experiment they referred to in the episode I viewed on film when I was in college. It dawned on me we live in 2010 so I found the experiment on You Tube.

The Milgram experiment examined people willing to perform acts for authority figures in conflict with their conscience. This experiment was in response to the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who was a key architect of the Holocaust. The experiment raises issues why people follow orders to commit violent acts such as the murder innocent people.

This led to a discussion of the Prussian General Friedrich Von Steuben who trained the soldiers of the American Revolutionary War in military drill and discipline beginning at Valley Forge. In the History Channel’s series “America, the Story of Us” they described how Von Steuben was impressed that while training German and French soldiers to do something they did it but with the Americans he had to explain why they should do something. The American soldiers were independent thinkers.



Americans are radical people in human history because we have formed a government not based upon the authority of one leader, kings or emperors or dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse Tung. Our government was formed upon Judeo-Christian values in the belief that our rights come from the Creator. Below is a passage from the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness”

A Nazi solider swore personal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. An American soldier swore allegiance to the United States Constitution which is our system of law of the people, by the people and for the people.

Below is a video clip of the Milgram experiment which is part of a series and quite long but interesting.



[Credits: Von Steuben image www.nps.gov, Milgram experiment video posted by GriefTourist (BBC TV May 2009)]

Kids - The Exorcist, the comedy

The Exorcist was a 1973 horror film that created a sensation that truly frightened many audiences. This film is still banned in England.



Steven recently had a project on Arab contributions to society in his world history class so he chose to focus on recent individuals. One of the individuals was William Peter Blatty who wrote his novel “The Exorcist” in 1971. The movie received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and lost out on best picture to “The Sting”.

It took a few phone calls but we were able to rent a copy of this movie and I thought it would scare my sons but they laughed throughout most of it. They thought it was funny but maybe a few scenes caught their attention. Apparently what they now see in movies, television and video games is more graphic and violent than what was considered horror in 1973.

[image credit: cinemaretro.com]

Kids - Holy Parking Spot

Every Sunday at Church I park my car ready to drive off in an instant after services without having to backup. The parking is so crowded they have Constables directing traffic. My wife and kids asked me why I do this and I replied didn’t you ever watch Batman, which starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin. They were always ready to shoot out of the Batcave on a moment’s notice in the Batmobile.

Well, when I thought about it, my wife wasn’t even born yet as the series began in 1966. My car is not anything like the Batmobile. I don’t have a Bat Parachute or Bat Ray but it’s equipped with OnStar. In any event, it seems the traffic in Houston is so slow the last thing one needs is a parachute to slow down your vehicle.

Below Batman chases the Riddler from the first season.



Robin’s favorite expression was “Holy” something. Below is a montage from the series of their many situations.



[Credit to ABC and the videographers IBatman1966I for his video post on the Bat Parachute and IndependantBioHazard for Holy, Holy Holy -Batman]

TX - MI Houston needs a Statue of Liberty

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” - Emma Lazarus

The symbolism of the Statue of Liberty in one of freedom and opportunity. The state of Texas and the city of Houston has come to represent the ideals of this symbol. Of the people I have met in Houston, very few are native to the city. Houston is a city of immigrants, from other states, other countries, and for all we know, other worlds checking out the Houston Space Center.

Forbes recently had a story with interactive graphs showing migration in the United States. Below is the link to the story:

To Forbes Article



[Credit to : http://blog.american.com/?p=15579 ,graph via Forbes http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/04/migration-moving-wealthy-interactive-counties-map.html?preload=39099 , photo via ttp://www.nps.gov/stli/photosmultimedia/photogallery.htm ]

Kids - Small World, Small Fish

On Father’s Day we decided to test the fishing waters in the small pond at Mary Jo Peckham Park in Katy. We stopped at Wal-Mart to buy some night crawlers and were surprised to see this product was from Waterford, Michigan, ten miles from where we used to live in Michigan. I would have never guessed living in Houston, Texas I would be buying fishing worms all the way from Waterford, Michigan and had to take a picture of the container.



People at the pond informed us the Texas Fisheries stock the pond every week or so with catfish in the summer and rainbow trout in the winter. We didn’t catch any catfish but caught several very small bluegills and perch.



On the fishing dock at the park are Steven, Dad and Anthony.

[Image credit: Dad]

Kids - Factory Tours

Last week we took the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory tour in Brenham, Texas.



They produce the third best selling ice cream in the USA behind Breyers, Dreyers/Edy’s Grand but sell more than Haagen Daz and Ben & Jerry’s. They sell their ice cream basically in seventeen Southern states which is probably why they are not number one. The tour guide stated that you can order Blue Bell’s vanilla ice cream at Outback Steakhouses anywhere in the United States.

While on Spring Break 2010 in Michigan we visited the Henry Ford and took the Henry Ford Rouge Factor tour in Dearborn, Michigan where they assemble Ford F-150 trucks.



The Blue Bell ice cream assembly line was active while the Ford workers were on an extended break this year and on our previous trip. We have made the Ford Rouge Factor tour three times in the last five years.

This year on the Ford tour I posed a financial auditor question to my sons. Do you think growing grass on roofs save Ford money?

Ford has the world’s largest “living roof” where they grow grass on the top of a factory building rather than using conventional roofing materials. The Ford tour guides claim it reduces energy costs by 5%, extends the life of the roof and results in cleaner storm water. It’s part of Ford’s “Green Initiative” that has won numerous awards and acclaims.

As we stood on the observation deck and looked out at all the various buildings in the Ford Rouge Complex we noted no other factory building had grass growing on top of them. If the grass on the roof saves 5% of energy costs, why don’t all the other factory structures have grass growing on them saving Ford tens of millions of dollars? Too soon to tell if the grass extends the life of the roof and I’m unsure about the cleaner storm water.

I explained to my sons it’s important to care about the environment but the grass roof probably doesn’t save money otherwise we would see grass on roofs everywhere, not just on factory buildings. Does what you physically observe agree with what you have heard? They didn’t think so but I also pointed out maybe the grass design is still too experimental to be practical. They have been working on this for ten years.

[Image credit: Blue Bell – coupondad.net, Ford logo student.ccbcmd.edu ]

Biz - Branding

I recently attended and enjoyed a business presentation by Bob Lamons on branding. I won his book “The Case for B2B Branding-Pulling Away from the Business to Business Pack” via a business card drawing.

In Texas, my kids think branding is marking with a steaming hot iron symbols to indicate ownership of cattle.

All corporate executives would like to sear into the minds and hearts of their customers a positive image and idea of their products or services. Not that corporate executives view their customers as cattle but rather important business relationships.

Mr. Lammons writes in his book, “A good brand will generate a highly focused set of expectations for the buyer, as well as for distributors, retailers, suppliers, employees and other audiences in your marketing universe.”

Branding is about creating positive expectations for your target audience. When I asked by kids to give me an example of branding it was no surprise.



Mr. Lamons book is a real world business combat manual which supports his views with numerous examples and contains twenty one case studies. From a financial analysis perspective, understanding the premium future value of a company will in part depend upon the creativity of their marketing and branding.

My favorite case study was the Acme Brick Company. “In 1998, a telephone survey of new home buyers in four major Acme markets revealed an 84% preference for Acme brick. No other supplier had more than a 10% preference.” Plus, Acme charges a 10% price premium for their brick. Keep in mind these are rectangular stones we would like to throw at our television sets while watching the daily news.

Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway) bought the Acme Brick Company in 2000 and said “We place a high value on investing in companies with strong brand positions in their markets.”

[image credit: www.mcdonalds.com,
Warren Buffet quote- http://www.brick.com/company/buffett.htm
Other quotes from Bob Lamons, “The Case for B2B Branding”]

Kids - Toy Story $$$

No toy gets left behind. Neither will Pixar investors.

“Pixar is known for making animation movies that do resounding business at the box Office. No Pixar movie has failed to hit the $360 million mark as yet and Toy Story 3 is not about to break that record. In fact it might just become the biggest earner for Pixar. 'Finding Nemo' is currently the top box Office earner for Pixar raking in $868 million in ticket sales.” -LA News Monitor, June 19, 2010

I believe Toy Story 3 will out earn ‘Finding Nemo’ although the times are economically more difficult.

We saw Toy Story 3 today at the Memorial City Mall complete with popcorn and slushies. In the prior week we had watched Toy Story 1 & 2 on Blue-Ray after not seeing these movies for some time.

Below is a link to the official trailer. Pixar disabled HTML embedding from You Tube so I could not code the HTML into this post.

Toy Story 3

[Credit quote to http://www.lanewsmonitor.com/news/Toy-Story-3-Reviews-Are-Out--Critics-Sing-Praises-1276953410]

Biz - Money Supply

Yesterday the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank updated several of its economic statistics. I love graphs as they visually convey information words cannot.

Generally, if you increase the supply of money you increase the price of goods and services. The graphs below show this general trend. (Double click to see the graphs in detail.)


Adjusted Monetary Base Not Seasonally Adjusted
From 1-1-1918 to 5-1-2010 in billions of dollars

Think of this as money that is in the economic system such as cash and credit cards.


Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers
From 1-1913 to 5-2010

Think of this as the level of prices to buy things like video games and pizza.

You may hear reports on the news prices are declining even though the money supply is going up. When prices go up this is called inflation and when prices go down it is called deflation.

Prices are temporarily going down or deflation because the economy, people and businesses that purchase and produce goods and services are in a very serious decline and the true unemployment rate or people unable to find jobs is probably at depression levels. The last time there was deflation was during the Great Depression.

Kids - Turtle Rescue

We pick up stray turtles like some people pick up stray dogs or cats. The other week a turtle wandered unto our yard who we believe was AWOL from the walking path in our subdivision that also serves as a flood control area. Kids in the subdivision love looking for frogs and turtles around the stream in this area. The boys wanted to keep him as a pet but Dad said no he/she is a wild animal and needs to be free. Concerned that the turtle could be harmed if he reached nearby busy streets we placed him in a box and headed for Bear Creek Park.



Bear Creek has a small zoo and a pond area full of turtles. I took the turtle out of the box and placed him near pond and explained to my sons the turtle will charge instinctively towards the safety of the water. Instead, the turtle turned around and walked in the opposite direction of the water. I turned him around to the water and he turned around in the opposite direction. It then occurred to me he was not a turtle but tortoise.



So we drove deep into the park in the woods and released him near a small stream where he would be out of harm’s way from any auto traffic. Turns out it was a Texas Tortoise (Gopherus Berlandieri). A Texas Tortoise may not be as majestic as an African Lion but it was still born free.




[Credits: Video Matt Monro singing “Born Free” video posted by Komodoman; Pictures by Dad.]

TX -MI Mad Dogs and Michiganganders

The native inhabitants of tropical countries which comprised the colonial British Empire had an expression that “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” The British had a disregard for the heat and radiation of the sun wherever they were throughout the world. They went about their activities regardless of the climate and perhaps their can-do attitude explains why the British Empire was so successful for so long.

This past Saturday I was acting like a mad dog and Englishman spending five hours working about the yard during the midday sun with temperatures in the high nineties. I was probably the only individual in our subdivision working on their yard and I’m sure my neighbors were thinking this person from Michigan was insane. I had lots of sunscreen plus my hat but needless to say I did perspire although I drank a lot of water. Later in the evening, for the first time in my life the fingers on my hands were actually cramping up from probably from loss of fluids. So I bought some Gatorade and ate some bananas to raise my potassium levels up and I was back to normal.

It’s a good thing the British didn’t have Gatorade in the 18th century, they may have conquered the whole world.

[Image credit: http://www.freeclipartnow.com/nature/weather/sun/]

Kids - Mary Elizabeth Eichelberger

Mary Elizabeth Eichelberger died in her home on June 10, 2010, in Nederland, Texas. Today she was laid to rest at Oak Bluff Memorial Park I Port Neches, Texas.



She will be greatly missed by her husband, family and friends.

Kids: I, II, III, IV, V, VI...

Everyone is familiar with the Roman Numerals. What is the Roman Numeral for zero?

I know of no Roman Numeral symbol for zero. I’m not sure who invented “zero” as there is a great deal of debate as to who and where it was invented. It may have been used as early as the Babylonians and it was being used in India around the 5th century. Zero reached western Europe about the 12th century from Northern Africa. The Mayans independently invented zero the 4th century.

We learned this tidbit from Steven’s recent world history project on Arab contributions to civilization.

[Image credit to scratch.mit.edu]

Kids - Dad, Are we under EMP attack?

Every time the power goes out I get the question from Anthony, “Are we under EMP attack?” Apparently, in the Modern Warfare video game there are EMP attacks.

EMP stands for Electromagnetic Pulse which can occur when a nuclear device is detonated in the earth’s atmosphere whose radiation has the potential to destroy any electrical device. In theory, if the device is powerful enough and at the right altitude it could send the United States back to 1800’s technological status.



Electrical power grids would be destroyed; computers, cell phones, automobiles, television, planes, electrical medical devices, anything electrical would become inoperable, perhaps for months or years. The economic and social chaos would be devastating.

Article on EMP Attack

I’m not as concerned about an EMP attack as I am about hurricanes now that we are in the summer. My latest project is hurricane preparedness.

[Image credit to http://www.utm.edu/alerts/_img/nuclear.jpg (University of Tennessee-Martin)]

Kids - Dad, There's Nothing to Eat! Only 60,000 Items to Choose

There’s an expression. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

When we grocery shop our family has a rule that if someone buys something then they must eat it. There are no reasons to ever go hungry in our home or America.

A traditional supermarket in the USA could contain as many as 60,000 SKU’s (Stock Keeping Unit).

Supermarket Stats



In 1976, Viktor Belenko a Russian fighter pilot flew his advanced MIG-25 super-fighter under the radar defense systems in Japan and defected to the West. It was an military intelligence opportunity and experts from the West quickly disassembled the aircraft to learn all its secrets. Viktor Belenko was granted asylum by President Gerald Ford. When he was brought to the United States he visited a shopping center in Virginia and could not believe people had access to the vast array of consumer goods available. He thought the shopping center was built by the CIA to try to impress him on the quality of life in the United States. It was just a regular suburban shopping center. I hope we always have too many consumer choices.

[Image credit to http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?99424-Viktor-Belenkos-MiG-25P-on-Hakodate-airfield-1976 ]

Biz - The Fastest Food Business: Chick-Fil-A

I have never seen a more successful fast food restaurant as Chick-Fil-A. I was seeking to purchase their common stock but they are privately held. No indications they will ever issue public equity.



At the Houston locations we frequent, during lunch and dinner hour, traffic overflows into the main streets they have so much business. They are beyond the drive through menu. At peak times they have their staff greeting vehicles as they edge into the parking lot and placing customer orders with portable electronic order tablets six or seven cars before the vehicles even reach the drive through menu board.

Little wonder they are the fastest of the fastest in the fast food business.

Chick-Fil-A Wins 6th Drive-thru Title

My kids love Chick-Fil-A and they are closed on Sundays.

There is only one Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Rochester, Michigan, I believe near Oakland University but is closed during the summer. A question becomes, why aren’t there Chick-Fil-A’s in Michigan?

Could it be the Michigan legal and business climate is so hostile to their corporate culture or structure Michigan is not a viable marketplace in their view? It’s the only explanation I can think of as to why Chick-Fil-A wouldn’t expand their market share into Michigan either through corporate stores or franchises.

Kids - Why We Buy Books

On spring break we drove back to Michigan. I bought a power adapter for the car so my sons could play games on a computer laptop throughout the trip. Since they sit all day and play on computers I figured they could sit all day in the car and play on the computer. Not once did they say “Are we there yet?”

However, they were annoyed with the external wireless USB mouse as it was working on top of some luggage but they hate the mouse built into the laptop even more so. At Hope, Arkansas, the boys wanted subs so we stopped at a Wal-Mart Subway shop off the interstate.

While at Subway, Steven said something that made me all almost fall off my chair, "Dad, can I buy a book?"

I was happy that all the private tuition money I shelled out was maybe making a difference that one of my sons would actually read a book in this computer age.

I proudly explained to him this was a great idea because when I was his age on long distance trips, reading books was one of the things I did to pass the distance.

“No dad,” he said, “I want a book to use as a flat stable and smooth surface for the USB mouse.”

Steven is always thinking outside the box.

Kids - Dad, did the Reichstag fall today?

On April 30th Anthony (age ten) asked me if the Reichstag (the Nazi capital building in Berlin and housing for Adolf Hitler) fell that day. He was testing to see if I knew the date and I replied recalling the Battle of Berlin was during April 1945. He then informed me Hitler killed himself on April 30th. Anthony was correct on both accounts.

His homework and report cards indicate he is not the best reader nor the best memorization skills. Yet I know this is not a true reflection of his abilities, he reads history and his memory is amazing.

While watching the History Channel series “The Story of Us (America)” as they began to discuss the World War II era he described in perfect detail the June 6th Allied D-Day beach landings by country: Sword Beach (British), Juno Beach (Canadian), Gold Beach (British), Omaha Beach (American) and Utah Beach (American). I couldn’t remember this when I was ten.

Below is a clip from “Saving Private Ryan” which is very violent as war is very violent.

D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.



[Credit to Paramount Pictures, “Saving Private Ryan” and the videographer MarineSniperMK for his video post]

Kids - Uncle Vincent McKay

Sixty-six years ago this was a big night for my Uncle Vincent McKay. He was in the airborne and parachuted into Normandy, France in anticipation of the D-Day naval invasion on June 6th. Given the chaos of the air drop, as with so many airborne soldiers, he was captured by the Germans. Although a prisoner of war, he spent the rest of the war working forced labor for the Nazi war machine. He was lucky to survive the jump and his time with the Germans.

One of the best mini-series ever made by HBO was “Band of Brothers” chronicling the story of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. Below is the jump scene over Normandy.

The clip starts off calmly as they travel over the safety of the English Channel but at 3:43 on the track the German flak begins to zero in on the troop carrier aircraft and the terror begins.



[Credit to HBO the Band of Brother Series and the videographer Timecomtinum145 for his video post.]

Biz - A Maestro for the Masses

I first came across Andre Rieu when I was teaching my kids about St. Patrick’s Day and was searching for classical Irish music. He is headline news in the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Journal section for June 4, 2010.

Few people know of him but the article states, “Mr. Rieu grossed about $96 million on tour last year. That haul landed him at No. 6 among the world’s top touring acts, according to Billboard’s 2009 tally – ranked just below U2, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and above Britney Spears, Coldplay and Metallica.” The classical musical critics hate him, probably because he is very successful and makes too much money. Capitalism is about allowing consumers to make personal choices to decide, including what music they want to listen too. This is why ITunes and IPods are so popular, kids can choose their own music.

My kids even listen to his music and the songs below are in our ITunes library. Below is the song Irish Washerwoman. The gentleman in the silver hair is John Sheahan (from the Irish group Dubliners) and Andre Rieu when he was much younger than the sixty years old he is today.



Credits to: Wall Street Journal, June 4th edition, the article by John Jurgensen. Videographers: Irish Washerwoman - Escoscando]

Kids - Outsourcing 3rd Grade Homework

Outsourcing is the global economy. A few weeks ago my son Anthony who is in the 3rd grade decided to join this trend and outsourced a small multiplication worksheet to his brother in the 6th grade for $50 so he could his maximize video game playtime.

Anthony recently had a birthday and received cash as a gift. At his age money is magical and he hasn’t grasped its value or how difficult it can be for people to earn. In 3rd grade reality, money is some mysterious material that grows on trees, like cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets.


I told Anthony it was outrageous that he paid his brother $50. I told him Dad would have done it for $25.

I explained competition makes free markets efficient. Putting on my regulatory hat I explained the job of regulators should be act as referees to insure there is fair and vigorous free competition in marketplaces. Then I put on my Dad hat and told him to do his own homework.

It occurred to me that Anthony’s grasp of the value and worth of money is about the same as a United States Senator. If this continues, Anthony will probably become a US Senator someday. Steven charged a steep fee of $50 for his services so he has a future as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

[Credit for the hamburger tree image to http://shirt.woot.com/derby/entry.aspx?id=35516
Here is the link to the art site ! ]