















Ressler Subaru will headline the Nov. 10 event as a major sponsor. “We are proud to support the GLBT community, especially through an event like Dakota Divas in Drag,” said Dot Frank, marketing director for Ressler Chevrolet-Subaru. “Subaru means unite and we hope that this event and our dealership do just that: provide a venue for people to socialize without hesitation, limitation or fear.”
In addition to underwriting the show, Ressler Subaru will present the all-new 2008 Tribeca at the event. Product literature and door prize items also will be featured as part of their display. “We’re fortunate that our manufacturer is favorable toward the GLBT community. Subaru of America has stepped up to help us sponsor this show,” commented Frank.
For that reason I recommend two things: First, that you not buy a vehicle from Ressler Chevrolet or Ressler Subaru. Second, I recommend against purchasing a Subaru altogether. These two companies are working together to actively promote sin in our community. If they’re so proud of themselves, I challenge Dave Ressler to order these plates for the vehicles on his lot:

Update: according to the April 2008 issue of City Magazine, the Ressler Chevrolet and Subaru dealerships were purchased by Bob Kupper, who’s also General Manager of the dealerships.
Here’s where I want to clarify something about homosexuality and sin. Homosexuality is not the only abomination the Bible talks about. There are others that all of us are probably guilty of at one time or another: lying, pride, mischief, theft, adultery…things that are not so disgusting to man in their physical manifestation, but are on equal footing with homosexuality in God’s eyes. Sin is sin, period. Lest any Christians out there start thinking they’re any better than the queers*, they’d better read their Bibles more closely. The Bible says that “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)…so don’t anyone start getting self-righteous.
Having said that, you don’t have Liars’ Pride weekend, Adulterers Cruises on the riverboat, or any Thieves’ Rights parades going on, do you? The whole “Gay Pride” isn’t just about sin, it’s about people defining themselves by, and reveling in, their sin. Look at Romans 1:22-32, for instance:
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
I can already sense the term “hate speech” coming up, and the lefties emailing me telling me how I’m so angry and hateful. No, this post isn’t about anger or hate; it’s not about me thinking I or any other Christian are better than any of the queers*. It’s about showing the truth about God’s word. You guys wanna have a “Pride Fest” and champion your sin, that’s your right. But don’t get all worked up when someone shows you out of the Bible that you’re dead wrong. My hope would be that these folks would read the Bible, see that they (like me, you, or any other person) need to be born again and turn from their sin. I’d love to see them get saved and meet ’em in heaven some day. How hateful is that?
*Don’t get on my case for using the term “queer”, either…until TV shows like “Queer as Folk” or “Queer Eye…” get new titles, or the Pride Fest folks stop calling their ride on the Lewis & Clark Riverboat the “Fruit Float.” I’m using their own terminology. And it is queer, after all.


I took a little video with my phone, too. The quality isn’t very good, but it shows what was bearing down on us as we walked along the path from the sandbar to Sertoma Park:
After we got back to our truck and watched what to us was a “non-event” pass over our heads, we went to TCBY and got some treats, then parked on the east end of town to eat and watch a glorious double rainbow form. Then we found ourselves unable to be away from the boys any longer and went to pick them up. Ah, family life.

I post an occasional “Luke Graner love fest” on here because he’s my friend, co-worker, and he helped me with my animated Flash banner at the top of this site. Oh yeah, I’ve loved his music going all the way back to the Curious Yello days. Today Luke played some of my favorites, and I was able to show my appreciation by grabbing some pictures.

This was the one event that could draw me to the Urban Harvest. I just don’t get anything from the whole “hippie vibe” I suppose; I’m not into the jewelry or new age stuff, and I think buying tie-dye items that someone else made is so contrary to the idea of tie-dyeing in the first place. Hey, I think I just stumbled upon something that a true “hippie” might agree with!



If you find yourself stuck at the hospital for a while, peruse this stack. It’s very interesting to look at the ads from nearly fifty years ago, as well as the photos and the articles. I remember reading one about some little Pacific nation called Vietnam, long before the Democrats started their ill-fated military action there. There are lots of camera ads, of course. Cover to cover, it’s neat to get such a glimpse at the past.
If you do find this treasure of magazines, please do your part to make sure that they stay right there in the waiting room where they belong, providing enjoyment for people who probably need to get their minds on something other than the person for whom they’re waiting.
I took the opportunity to leather up and stretch the big Suzuki’s legs Sunday afternoon, of course with twenty-some pounds of camera gear strapped to my back. I’m a daddy of two now, so I have to learn to consolidate my hobbies if I want to get time to do them. If I could just find a way to train karate while I SCUBA dive with a controller for a nitro-burning RC truck in each hand, while riding one of my fleet of motorcycles and taking a picture, all while pulling a giant wheelie on my mountain bike at the tennis court. That would just about cover it, I think I could hold my favorite frisbee in my teeth. Instead of attempting the impossible, I have instead resorted to times like this to steal away for a little chunk of time, and pick and choose which hobbies get my attention for now. Sooner than I can imagine, my boys will be old enough to do many of those things with me.






Things got even more interesting; the officer I talked to said that there had been two water main breaks tonight already. I wonder if any of these things are related? Perhaps the water system is similar to an electric grid; when part is shut down, it causes more stress in other places. In any case, if you work for the City of Bismarck and have anything to do with water or digging, you probably got a call Monday evening. Those of us who are city employees but don’t lift a shovel…well, I guess I’ll just take pictures and type, as usual.









For the music reference title of this post I picked a Lyle Lovett song, but I’ll always think of it as a JPL song, since my favorite version of it is done by my pals in JPL. Two of the guys are my frequent live-sports coworkers and employees of NBC in Fargo, and the third (J) is the brother of the other (L). They are extremely talented, and the best of their work isn’t even on the Myspace page I have linked for them. Enough about JPL, though…this picture is of JCP: Jonathan, me, and PJ.
We spent an evening by the river this week, with PJ learning how to throw rocks into the river and calling out every airplane, boat, or motorcycle that passed our view. He really loves motorcycles, which he calls “norlkles”, and can even turn the key and start one of my Kawasaki motorcycles if help him get up onto it. Imagine what he’ll be like when he’s two!
The river seems to be where it’s at this year. The sandbars are now fully revived as a place to gather and spend a summer afternoon, despite the city of Bismarck decimating the summer sandbar scene when they carved up Sertoma Park many years ago. Nowadays one simply needs a boat (or a friend with one) to join; I don’t, but considering that my little boy thinks they’re so keen, I suppose it’s time to shop for one! I never wanted one before because I didn’t think I’d use it enough to justify it. I suspect that these two little guys would encourage me to take the boat out plenty. Hm…if I had a boat…
If you noticed the site loaded a little slowly this week, it’s because I animated the top banner. Doing so involved a little bit of Javascript and Flash, and that stuff has to load the first time you visit the page. Once you’ve visited this site with the new header, it should load quickly in repeat visits. I had been playing with a few ideas for new banners at the top of the site and couldn’t pick one, so I decided that I should just rotate them. I hope they’re pleasing to the eye.
Now a reminder of an older, less frequently used feature. When I activated this feature a long time ago, I posted instructions on how to “Rate the Windbag.” The number of regular visitors to the site has grown by leaps and bounds since then, so I’ll post this again for those of you who are new. While older posts have rating counts as high as 400 or 500, I’m getting several times that many visitors on even a slow day now. So perhaps not everyone knows what those dots are for.
Each time a user clicks a dot it’s added to the tally, the number on the right. The average rating is on the left. In the graphic above, 4 users have responded with an average rating of 3.8.

That’s why, when you see the numbers at the bottom of the posts, things won’t always make sense. I’ll have a post with a low vote count, but with one comment, and dozens (sometimes hundreds) of comment views. So, while the post has been read between a thousand and two thousand times (that’s how many daily visitors I get), only one person may have found reason to comment, and not everybody decided to read his/her comment. Even fewer decided (or knew how to) vote to rate the post. It’s actually very interesting to see, especially in light of the server stats that I receive daily!
Of course, if you’re reading this post on one of the websites that syndicate it, you’re not eligible to vote. You have to actually come to bismarckmandanblog.com to do so.
Have fun. The old Democrat adage “vote early, vote often!” doesn’t apply here.