The Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 has been released from prison.  He spent 29 years behind bars.  He has been saying he is a messenger of God and that the world is going to end in this century. 
  It looks like he has a few mental problems. 
  I think 29 years is a long time for someone to stay in jail in Italy or many nations in Europe.
 
  For this nation I think anyone that attempts to kill a elected federal office holder should spend life in jail and never get out. There should not even be any question of them getting out. 
  Now some people are going to say why should the federal office holder be special?  My thinking is that it is because of the harm the attack does on the nation and on our system of government.  I was alive when President Kennedy was killed.  I never want to have something like that happen again.  Plus I feel like I was a victim of the killing of JFK.  I never got over it and I think it did some sort of harm to me that still lives with me after all these years.

  
  My feeling is that if you kill anyone you should spend life in jail.  But that is up to each state to decide and for the courts to decide.  I do not agree with what many people want to do and that is take the decision away from the judge. 

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"Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941. Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God, but is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.^[1]

The First Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians. The feast consisted of fowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash. However, the traditional Thanksgiving menu often features turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie…"    Wikipedia

  Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. 
  We as a nation have much to be thankful for and I have many reasons to br thankful on this Thanksgiving 2009. 
  Our economy is in very poor condition this Thanksgiving day but we know why and who is the cause of the problems and they American people have voted most of them out of office.  There are still a few of them left but they seem to be doing everything in their power to cause the rest of them to be voted out of office.
  We have a president this year that is trying bold things to correct many of the problems of the past. 
  We face hard times but at last we can look to Washington and believe that we have a friend in the White House.

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  Today November 22nd a day many of us will never forget… The day that President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas.
  That was 46 years ago and I was a young man living in Kansas City… Now I am an old man living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  People of my age can not forget this date.

Can you remember what you were doing 45 years ago? I have problems remembering what I was doing yesterday.
But I can remember what I was doing 45 years ago today. I can remember and will remember until I die what I was doing on November 22, 1963. I was at home listening to WRUL Radio New York Worldwide on a shortwave radio when I heard the announcement that shots had been fired at the motorcade of President John F. Kennedy.

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  I just do not understand anything…  So far 11 dead bodies in a house and you can smell them out side and all around the house and no one called the police.  The police came and talked to the killer and do not notice anything.  Plus if you are talking to a suspect don’t you look, listen and smell?  Don’t you use all your senses?  The chief or someone said the police could not go in his house because he was not on probation.  They could have asked to be invited in…They could have said why don’t we talk inside…or something.
  Police must have been on patrol in the area and they never notice anything?  Where they driving around with their windows all up.  Even in the hot summer and cold winter I often had my windows down.  Not all the time but much of the time… I was looking and listening and paying attention.
  One time, a long time ago, I was working security at St. Joseph Hospital (Kansas City, MO).  I had a four channel crystal scanner…That is how long ago it was…I was working in the parking lot.  I could hear in an apartment building next to the parking lot a couple screaming at each other…Then I heard the KCPD dispatch an officer to check the area for a couple fighting. I saw the officer drive up and stop in front of the building. I could hear the screaming from where I was…He had his windows up on his car and I heard him on the radio call in and say he could not hear anything and it was an un-founded call and he would be back in service.
  One time in the same parking lot two officers from a special unit parked in the parking lot.  They were there to respond to the bank on the next block if it was held up.  The both fell asleep in the car and their car run out of gas. 
  I suspect now things are worst.  You are going to office police and security officers on their cell phones all the time talking to their wife and then all day to their girl friend.  Or you are going to have them on laptop computers playing a game or surfing the Internet.

  I know high tech hardware and software costs money but we need more of it in many areas.  Most of all in police work.  All police cars should have video units.  Dispatch and Supervisors should have the ability to access the video in real time.  I think the way it works now is if something happens then they look at the video. 
All police cars should have GPS tracking devices.  Dispatch should have the ability to see on map their location at all times and details such as speed and other information. 
  Back in the early 70s I worked for a private security company called Watchman’s Service.  They were located in Overland Park (KS).  All their cars had a big device in the trunk of the car and this device had a round paper in it and everything about our car was recorded on that paper, in ink, how long we drove and at what speeds, the RPM of the car etc.

  How did i get on this subject?   God help me.. I am getting to old.
  I think the police need to get back to basic police work… There are to many special units and people running around doing nothing.  I bet their are to many “police officers” sitting in offices typing on computer screens.
  If I were the chief of police of a major city I would spend one hour of my day in a patrol car.  If the mayor needed to talk to me he could just get his ass out of his office and come out side and get in the patrol car with me.  Then all of the officer under me would have to do the same thing except they would have to spend more than one hour in the patrol car.
  Oh well..enough of this… No one is listening and no one cares.

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  I been blogging a long time and my blog seems to get indexed very well.  In fact if I blog about something sometimes things happen. 
  Back in January of 2008 I blogged about my first love Carrie.  We would have been 8 or 9 years old.  Well last month she found my blog.  Today she left me a comment.
  I sent her an email.
  It is so nice, at my age, to hear from an old friend.  It is so nice to know that they have had a good life.  Just think I just heard from a girl that I liked about 60 years ago.
  It is a small world thanks to computers, the Internet and blogs.

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  I just watched “Observe and Report” (2009) on DVD.  I am not sure what I think about the movie. Remember I worked mall security here in Miami for a year.  Many years ago I worked a summer part time at a mall in Overland Park (KS).  So I may not be the best person to give a fair review of the movie.
  It was sad and funny at times.  I had tits in it and even full frontal male nudity so they pulled out all the stops on the movie. I can not recommend the movie.
  “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (2009) was a better movie.  It may not have been as funny but it was not as dark and sad.

   Both movies are sad…I guess they should be…You have to work and support yourself and your family but one thing you should not be is a mall security officer. Most of all in Florida try and not be a security officer.  In FL a security officer has zero power of arrest.  It is written in the law that you can not arrest someone. 
  There are some big security corporations that have as their field mall security and they suck big time.  They make it appear to the mall management like they are giving security but they have it designed to only appear to give security. 
  Even in a state, like Missouri, where a security officer has full police powers and the power of arrest and is armed the job of mall security sucks.  Keep in mind this is just in general…Nothing is every 100% with things like this…As an example…My time working contact security at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park (KS) a long long time ago.  I was armed and working two 12 hour shifts.  It was a part time job because I was working full time hospital security.

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  Someone did a search on Google for “who invented blogging.”   ShowMeBlog was number two on the list and they came here.

    The first link when you do the Google search is to Yahoo Answers.  They seem to say Jorn  Barger in December of 1997.  Sorry wrong answer. I was doing it in 1982! 
    The next link takes you to ShowMeBlog and what I wrote in 01/09/2006.  
    The next link take you to Cnet News.  That is a post that I have yelled and screamed about.  When it was first written they named three or four people and gave a date of 1995.  They have since gone in a number of times and edited the post.  They have softened their statements and left it open that others were doing things like it.  I still object to the post and expect better from Cnet.

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  Here is some information on how you can attend BlogWorld 2009 in Las Vegas 2009.

                                   ”For the past 2 years, the BlogCatalog team has had an absolute blast hanging out with other social media professionals and meeting some of our members at BlogWorld & New Media Expo. The generous hosts of BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2009 want you to be one of the members we have the pleasure to meet there this year! We are going to give away a free 3-day, full access pass (valued at $1195) for this year’s event being held October 15-17, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV…PLUS 1 million ad impressions for your blog on BlogCatalog!…”

    Now how can I win a free trip to Las Vegas and attend the BlogWorld & New Media Expo?  First I have to be a BlogCatalog member and I am.  That was easy.  Did I win?  No, not yet I have to write a blog post and tell them why they should pick me to attend the event and that is what I am doing right now.
    OK well I am so good looking that I should attend the event to give some class to the event.  Look the other people are all going to be a bunch of tech geeks correct?  You are saying that Jim Howard is not going to win because of his looks and he IS a geek.  In fact look up geek and you will see a photo of Jim Howard.
     OK I think I should win because I got my first computer in 1978 and it had 4K of memory and the modem was 300 baud.  I could attend and talk about the old days.   You are saying that is a good reason for me not to win.  
     Dam..this is not easy.
     I should win because I started doing a bulletin board system in 1982 and it was online 24/7 until 1995 when the web was invented and then I moved my site to the web.  I could tell people how I invented blogging at the event. Oh come on now…Now you are saying that people will just point and laugh at me.  Well then I should win because I would bring some smiles and laughs to BlogWorld 2009.  
      What do you think?   Have I found something that will make them pick me?

       I guess we will just have to wait until September 19th to find out who will receive the 3-day full access pass.  Winner receives an event pass only.  Travel and lodging are not included. 
        Pray I do not win.  If I win I would have to start asking for donations for travel and lodging. 

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  We have had three guys here working on the condos.  They are fixing patios fences and putting up some wood above and below windows for some reason.  None of them speak one word of English.  
  It is taking them forever to get the work done…I suspect they are not the problem they got a boss that comes around (No, he does not speak English) and I think he is directing them to do things and has them running around from one place in the condo to the other.  They have worked three days on our little fence and it is not done yet.
  Well they start about 0900 hours and they are working right outside my son’s bedroom.  The bring a radio and tune to Radio Havana Cuba or something…Not sure what it is ..but it is not in English… My son works the PM shift and stays up until 0400  hours.  When I worked the PM shift I would go to be at 0200 hours.  Well they been waking him up with their pounding and the pounding of Latin music.
  My son had someone at work write a sign to put on his patio door in Spanish.

  Now I would not truth anyone to write a sign in Spanish.  Smile
Hell, that sign could say anything …It could say…Kick me or please play the radio loud I love Latin music.  Smile

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  I do not have a shortwave radio right now.  I been thinking about getting one.  I would like to have the Grundig Satellit 750 FM/AM/Air/Shortwave radio but it is $299.99 and that is out of my price range.
  I might get the Grundig S350 Deluxe AM/FM/SW radio one of these days.  It is only $99.00 and I could even get it at Radio Shack. 
  I hear the Grundig G6 Aviator Buzz Aldrin Edition Shortwasve Radio is also good.  In fact all three of those you can get from Radio Shack.

  The ham radio HT I would love to get does pick up shortwave… Hell it picks up everything.. But my guess is that shortwave would suck on it. 
   I want to upgrade my ham “ticket” to General Class and then I could transmit on the shortwave ham bands.  But almost any radio to receive and transmit on shortwave ham bands start at about $1K.  The only way I could come up with that sort of money would be to win the lottery.  Smile
   I still want to upgrade my license to General Class.

Popularity: 2% [?]

  Here is a pretty neat service.  It is a time line.  Check it out.

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 “ @n0uwy I acknowledge many examples of predecessors to blogs in book (& video), tho’ not yrs. I think u miss my point (no 1st or "inventor")”

Here is Scott Rosenberg’s video from YouTube:  The First Blogger, with Scott Rosenberg.
He did the video May 28, 2009.   I mention the date because much of what he says sounds like my video which I did on YouTube on August 2, 2007.  I am NOT saying he even saw my video or anything but I want to make it clear that I was saying it years ago and I did not get any of the points from his video.

Popularity: 2% [?]

  I commented here before about Scott Rosenberg’s book called “Say Everything:  How Blogging Began.”  I even posted his video from YouTube here:  The First Blogger, with Scott Rosenberg. 
  I attempted to post my YouTube video: Did Jim Howard Invent the Blog?     as a Video Response but he did not allow any video responses. 

  I found “Wordyard” which is Scott Rosenberg’s blog.  In a post on the blog he mentions that he used the Internet Wayback Machine for his research.  No wonder he screwed up his book. 
  In his blog post he mentions “blog historian” Rudolf Ammann and that he found links to Dan Gillmore’s “pioneering” EJournal blog beginning in 1999! 
  My God, I get so tired of this crap.  I was doing a blog in 1982!  It was written up in “Link-Up” magazine in 1984. I was blogging before the world wide web was invented in 1995.  
  Did I invent the blog?  If you watch my video I think I do a pretty good job of covering that subject.  I KNOW for a fact that I was doing a blog before ANY of the people that are mentioned as the first to do a blog.  They are all mentioned in the 1995-1999 range.  I was blogging in 1982! 
  Now some guy may have been doing a blog before me.  That is possible and I mention that in my video.  Now some people, very few, that give me some credit will say …something to the effect that …yes you were doing a BBS and that was early blogging and you were one of thousands doing a blog…I do not say that I was blogging because I was doing a BBS in 1982.  (I did Howard’s Notebook from 1982 until the world wide web was invented in 1995 and then I moved it to the www.)  I say I was doing to blog in 1982 because it had all the content of a blog.  I commented daily and gave personal views, news and information.  I had list of information and you could click on some of the information and my BBS would dial out on the other phone line and connect you to that site. 
  I am not out to be listed as the father of blogging or the inventor of blogging.  I am just here saying that blogging was NOT invented in 1999 or in 1995.  I KNOW I was doing it in 1982. 

Popularity: 2% [?]

 
    The phone above is of me and my Radio Shack Model I TRS-80 computer.  If I remember correct I got it in 1977.  It came with 4K of memory  and a 4K operating system. I got it upgraded to 48K of memory.  In the photo above you will see in the right hand corner my ESF drive.  I loved my computer.  I had a lot of computers over the years.  I had a VIC-20 and I even ran a bulletin board system on the VIC-20 for a day just so I could say I did it.  I had a number of Commodore 64 computers.  That was a great computer.  I ran my BBS on a C64 for years.  I even had a SX-64 and of course a Radio Shack Model 100.  It is sort of funny … I do not even own a laptop computer now. 
  I even owned a TI-59 programmable calculator.  God I hate to think how much money I spent on it and the printer for it.
  I even owned two Tandy 2000 computers.  I loved that computer.  I loved all my computers.  Smile

  Those were the good old days.  Smile
  OK OK, 300 baud was not so great.  Smile

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“Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman known as both "Uncle Walter" for his easygoing, measured delivery and "the most trusted man in America" for his rectitude and gravitas, has died. Cronkite was 92 years old. At the height of his influence, Cronkite’s judgment was believed to be so important it could affect even presidents.developing story …”  CNN

    Sad day but 92 years of age is a long life.  I am one of the Americans that was watching Walter Cronkite live when he give the news that JFK was dead.  That is a moment in time that I will never forget. 

  I was 22 years old at the time.  That day I had been listening to WRUL radio, “Radio New York Worldwide” on shortwave radio.  I did a weekly radio program for them but I my program was not on at the time.  They broken in to the program at the time and said they had news and said that “shots had been fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in Dallas.”  I did not even know he was in Dallas.  I turned on the TV and started watch KCMO TV and Walter Cronkite.  I saw the above video live at the time.
  The father Huber mentioned in the broadcast I knew.  He had been my pastor at St. Vincent’s Church in Kansas City.  
   
  Walter Cronkite dead at 92.  Walter Cronkite was an amateur radio operator (KB2GSD) and so is a “Silent Key.”

Popularity: 18% [?]

  On July 17, 1981 I know were I was at 7:05 PM.  That is the date and time of the Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse in Kansas City (MO). 

“The Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse was a major disaster that occurred on July 17, 1981 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others during a tea dance. At the time it was the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history…”

  You can see photos at Kansas City dot Com

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Popularity: 1% [?]

  I got the new Miami-Dade Transit Easy Card in the mail today.  It is like a credit card for the transit system.  Since I am an old fart it is a “Golden Passport” card and is free.  It expires 03/31/20012.  I hope I am living in the Titusville or Cocoa Beach area of FL by March of 2012.
  But as long as I live in the Miami-Dade area I can ride the bus or rail for free. 
  I guess this card is like the system they use in Washington DC and some other areas.  The big change, I think, is for those that have to pay to use the system.  They can load the card with credit in a number of ways.
 
  I need to get out of this house.  I might as well be in jail.  I think people in jail get out their room more often that I do. 
  This is the hot time of the year here in Miami. 
  I have lived in MO, TX and FL.  I am not counting when I was a baby and lived in CA (1942-1945) and not counting a summer I lived in Barnwell (SC) and a summer in Council Bluffs (IA). 
  The weather in Missouri was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. But you have some fast changes of winter and you have some seasons that are odd and different.  I do not think I could make it in a bad winter in Missouri again.
  The weather in Texas in the summer is hot.  No it is HOT.  It feels like just you have waked in a oven.  It is like a torch has been turned on you. 
  The weather in the summer it is hot.  Not as hot as Texas but it is hot.  The weather in the winter is great. If I had money I would spent the winter in FL but spent the summer someplace else.

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Popularity: unranked [?]

“WASHINGTON (CNN) — You’ve seen the iconic picture of a soldier with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but that could soon be a thing of the past.

A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.

According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.

The Defense Department’s top health officials are studying the report’s suggestions and will make recommendations to the Pentagon’s policy team and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The study recommends phasing out tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars over a five- to 10-year period…”

    The CNN story goes on to say that many in the military object to a ban on smoking.  

    The military is so upset with the idea of gays in the military, and we know that about 10% of the military is gay, I think we should offer a deal …It could be you can smoke if you agree to gays in the military.  Smile
   

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Popularity: 1% [?]

“SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Do you use a sock puppet to secretly keep track of your frenemies?

Plan to spend your staycation watching vlogs and webisodes? Or perhaps you plan to signal a flash mob for a quick bite of shawarma.

If you’re not entirely certain what all that means, turn to the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, which has added about 100 new words that largely reflect changing trends in American society…”

  I love words and Webster’s Dictionary.  When I was little we had a very large dictionary.  It was like the ones you would see on a large stand in a library.  I would look up words in it.  I would often just start looking up words one after another.
  I think I was about 7 or 8 years old.  I am not sure how I started or how long it lasted but I would drag the very large and heavy dictionary  to the middle of the room, after my mother and father went to work, and lay on it and hump the book.  Yes, I masterbated using a dictionary. 
  Now some of you are thinking he could not have been 8 years of age because his father and mother would not have left him alone when they went to work… Yes they did ..this was the old days folks..In fact when I was 9 or 10 years old my mother’s mother lived with us for a year or two and she fixed meals for me and read to me but I was in charge of her medication.  She had an addiction to a drug so I had her medication and I would stay close to the house so I could hear if she rang the bell next to her bed and if it was time for her medication then I would give it to her. She died when I was about ten years old.  No not from an over dose of her medication.

  If you think I was a very bad boy for using a dictionary to masterbate keep in mind that we had a very large bible and I never used it.

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    You can read the CNN story but I just got to put in my two-cents on the subject.  At one time federal buildings were guarded by private contract guards from services like Pinkerton, Burns and others.
     The contract company would bid on the contract and the lowest bidder would get the contract.  In a couple of years the contract would come up again and often one of the other guard services would bid less and get the contract. 
     What took place most of the time is the guard working for the one company would just quit and go to work for the other company that got the contract.  So it would be new company and same guards.
     The contract guards got higher pay because the government as part of the contract said that a certain percent of the money had to go to the officers.
      The guard company would say that they gave their guards training but in fact they gave none.  I know I worked for years for them as a second job on my days off from my full time job.  I worked for Burns, Pinkerton, Well-Fargo and many others.  I also owned stock in a couple of them and I would see their report to stockholders and they would show photos and stacks of books and videos that they said they gave to employees as training.  It never happened.  One company showed me a 15 minute slide show one time and that was it.
      

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Popularity: unranked [?]