Monthly Archives: March 2010

The coolest “Mustang with a Geo Metro engine” you’ll find

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This beautiful specimen of aircraft is a homebuilt replica of a P-51 Mustang. It’s not a shiny metal-skinned plane, and it’s certainly much smaller, but it sure is sweet looking. The builder paid a lot of attention to detail!

As you see from the side, this tiny little one-seater is pretty compact, with clean lines and a nice gray and black paint job.

The biggest surprise: Inside the nose sits a three-cylinder engine from a Geo Metro! I’m pretty sure that fact makes this the only Geo-powered “Mustang” in existence.

Beautiful. This plane looks graceful even while tethered to the tarmac.

I didn’t have time to hang around for some aerial shots, but had just enough to time to work some angles and thank the owner. I also didn’t want to be too big an interruption to the EAA meeting.

Now if only there were some real machine gun controls in here… 🙂 It’s a tight fit but it looks like the canopy offers amazing visibility.

Nice tail. Again I just have to admire the craftsmanship. It’s no surprise; I run into plenty of North Dakotans who display remarkable ingenuity as inventors and artisans.

One last beauty shot before I said my goodbyes and hopped back in the truck. I had an appointment to make, so I was unable to spend more time looking at and photographing this work of airborne art.

Welcome (back) to Bismarck. Restrictions in effect. Only one catch: you may have to guess what they are

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It’s that time of year again: the ubiquitous “Restrictions in Effect” signs are popping up around the periphery of Bismarck. Restrictions of what nature, you ask? If your only source of information is these signs, I suppose it’s anyone’s guess.

I saw these signs go up two years ago and thought they were pretty funny. Obviously it’s because of the load restrictions on Bismarck roads, which I heard about on the radio, but the signs are vague enough to omit that detail. It’s only after someone figured out what was missing and wedged a little “Load” in there that the signs made sense:

This is how the corrected signs looked last year. I was actually surprised to find an unmodified one posted up along Divide Avenue this afternoon. The top two pictures are from today, the bottom picture from last year. As you can see in this post from last March, I was almost second-guessing whether I’d even seen the signs without the word “Load” inserted. Today’s sighting of one of the original signs is a bit of a vindication, I suppose. Now someone’s going to have to dash up to Divide Avenue with another “Load” sticker!

UPDATED: A little infographic for the weekend, in light of those union banner ads

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If you’re like me, and run a very robust ad blocker, you haven’t seen the ads praising Earl Pomeroy which are being run by the SEIU labor union. I was tipped off by Rob over at SayAnythingBlog.com, actually. I thought it was very telling, since they’ve been bankrolling Earl Pomeroy for seventeen years.

The fact of the matter is, the labor unions are happy because they’re getting what they paid for. They want liberal lapdog politicians, and they pay top dollar for them. Earl Pomeroy has shown that he is no different.

Congressman Pomeroy, how can you claim to be a representative of North Dakota when you let the labor unions pull your strings? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only SIX PERCENT of your constituents belong to unions. In addition, according to the union members I’ve talked to, few of them like the direction you Democrats are taking this nation! Only about 28% of North Dakotans favored this legislation, which means that as a “representative” you should not have voted for it. Thank you for showing us who you really represent.

Just like when the union lackeys tried to overrun the Honk NO rally at the Federal Building a while back, Big Labor is showing its true colors. They and their liberal political allies are crawling out from under their rocks and being bold in their agendas at just the right time, when a vast number of otherwise disinterested Americans have grown outraged and decided to enter the political arena. Good. Be as liberal as you guys can be, folks…and show people once and for all what you’re about. It will have certain repercussions at the ballot box, which even ACORN-style ballot stuffing won’t be able to stop.

UPDATED 3/30/2010: According to this Politico article, the unions are dumping $700,000 into advertising for Earl Pomeroy and his Democrat cronies! I wonder if he’ll condemn this use of “out of state money” like he did when he whined to KXMB last November?

Update: This is how the federal government “fixes” things

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As I went to the post office to buy stamps last night, I couldn’t help but notice this funny-yet-sad example of a “government fix.” I see it every time I have business at the post office, and I have been taking not of it for YEARS. The metal plaque on the wall has been held up by a poorly-applied strip of shipping tape since at least 2006, and possibly earlier.

It isn’t even a meticulous repair, one which would give the impression that a diligent federal worker made do with the best that they had and attempted to make repairs to the best of their ability. No, this asymmetrical and wrinkled piece of tape looks rather sloppy. Of course, a strip of shipping tape isn’t usually how you attach a metal decoration to a slab of marble.

The crazy thing is that this repair will have proved itself far more effective than the government health care reform takeover; I mean, after all, the shipping tape has held up for several years for me to comment on it! Meanwhile, the Hopey-Changey nature of the health care bill is only appealing to the same sponges that thought Barack Obama was going to buy them a new car and a new kitchen out of his personal “Obama Stash.” Boy, are they going to be mistaken.

Spring is just around the corner

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Those cloudy skies will soon be replaced with sunny ones, and I look forward to being able to take my toddlers outside without bundling them up! It’s a lot easier to get the kids out the door when it’s warm out, that’s for sure.

This winter has been very good for photography. When I first got my camera a few years ago, I was sure I’d be putting it on the shelf for the winter. I couldn’t imagine what there might be to photograph during a long, dreary North Dakota winter. I was completely wrong. The past several months have been especially fruitful, especially with conditions providing those spikes of light due to ice fog on occasion.

Even so, I’m looking forward to the photo opportunities Spring will provide! I love deep snow as much as the next person, but it’s time for a new season. As the colors return, my camera and I will be ready.

UPDATED: Earl Pomeroy and Bank of North Dakota mentioned on the EIB network, Conrad and Pomeroy seek distance from the “Bismarck Earmark” bribe

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Earl Pomeroy, having established a long tradition of voting against North Dakotans’ wishes while collecting over 90% of his campaign money from out-of-state labor union and insurance company donors, is one of the US Representatives that is under intense scrutiny and pressure to vote NO on this farcical “health care reform” monstrosity facing Congress over the weekend.

Rush Limbaugh had a word of advice for Pomeroy during today’s show, regarding an exemption for the Bank of North Dakota from the government’s nationalizing of the student loan industry as part of “health care reform.”

KXMB ran this article where Conrad assured North Dakotans that the Bank of North Dakota would have an exemption from the student loan nationalization. Now the Washington Times is running this article in which Conrad and Pomeroy attempt to distance themselves from this “Bismarck Bribe” or “Bismarck Earmark” as fast as they can, and says it will do them little good.

Every time a prominent North Dakota Democrat gets caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar, they simply say, “Oops!” and give the money back or to charity. KFYR, KXMB, the Forum, the Tribune…they all lap it up and dutifully cheerlead for the Democrat like the good little stenographers they are. Byron “Skybox” Dorgan got caught with a bunch of money in the Jack Abramoff scandal, which he gave back. Kent “Countrywide” Conrad gave back some money after it was discovered he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage for which his property didn’t even qualify. Now Conrad and Pomeroy are trying to get as far away from “the Bismarck Earmark” as fast as they can.

Rush Limbaugh had some cautionary words for Rep. Pomeroy, which I’ve encapsulated for you here:


If you don’t see playback controls, move your cursor over the video window.
It’s interesting to note that Mr. Limbaugh mentions Kent Conrad as ‘wanting no part of this.” In the KXMB article I referenced earlier, Kent Conrad had no problem with a Bismarck Bribe in the Senate legislation. You can’t have it both ways, Senator! North Dakotans aren’t that stupid; you can no longer act one way on the east coast and another back here in flyover country. We’re onto you. And we can’t wait to meet you at the ballot box!

As for Rep. Pomeroy, who I’m not convinced even wants to remain in office any more, I suppose he’s still a wildcard. He’s owned by out of state labor union and insurance company interests…look who’s been bankrolling his campaigns for the past seventeen years. I for one have been calling his offices in Bismarck and Washington, DC in hopes of swaying his vote. I can’t count on his desire to represent North Dakota; if that was the case, he wouldn’t have nearly two decades of doing exactly the opposite. I can only hope that he’s not too tired to care anymore and resigned to voting the Democrat party line until he’s finally ousted. I guess this weekend we’ll know.

UPDATE: Here’s the article in Roll Call Magazine which talks about Conrad’s advocating for “The Bismarck Earmark” or “The Bismarck Bribe.” (click here)

Talons spotted in Bismarck yesterday

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I was out with my little boys yesterday afternoon and noticed something very eye-catching as we drove past the airport on our way home: a pair of Air Force jets, T-38 Talons. Sweet! They were parked on the tarmac near Executive Air and preparing for flight, so the fellas and I grabbed a spot of fence to watch ’em.

This one was up and running already when we got there, while the other one was about to spin up on the APU. These jets are pretty quiet from the front, thankfully.

Soon they began to taxi to the end of the runway, cockpit canopies open, and then they took off in quick formation. My boys were thrilled to see “fighter jets” (yes, I know they’re trainers and not armed) and surprised at how fast they were. There were a few other onlookers over by EA to see these supersonic beauties take flight. Wow, talk about great timing, eh?

AFL-CIO union operatives crash Bismarck health care protest

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A few of us got together to hang out at the federal building on 3rd and Rosser today and watch cars go by and honk to send a message to the unreachable Earl Pomeroy. It was a bit of a surprise to see a bunch of people show up to hold signs in favor of the government healthcare takeover, but not a surprise to find out the story behind them (which, by the way, you won’t find in North Dakota’s mainstream media).

These were the two ringleaders who brought stacks of pre-printed signs and were most vocal in engaging the grassroots folks while I sat and listened (of course I chimed in on occasion). Who they really are tells the story: Dave Kemnitz, on the left is the president of the AFL-CIO union. The guy on the right is Don Morrison of “ndpeople.org” — an organization I’ll get to later on in this post.

Here’s a stack of the professionally made (and printed by a union shop) signs that Mr. Kemnitz brought for his lackeys. He neglects to note on his signs, however, that Earl Pomeroy has been bankrolled by the big insurance companies for the past seventeen years. Liberals always cover for their own.

I think some of these folks were made available for this counter-protest by the incredibly great effect labor unions had on Bobcat jobs in our city. Given all the jobs they drove out of here, there could have been another couple hundred union folks here…

I wonder if anyone has told this fella about SCHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, CHAND, or any of the other social programs that take care of people who cannot afford health insurance. Something about this professionally made sign sets it apart from the grassroots movement that’s been sweeping the USA like a wildfire…

…oh yeah. Professionally printed by union shops for union operatives. This is called “astroturfing,” named for the antithesis of a “grassroots” movement.

Now, about ndpeople.org – a site which got a weblink in this story from KFYR-TV, although the organizers of the event did not (they could have linked to americansforprosperity.org or honkno.com just as easily. The ndpeople.org people have their headquarters in the NDEA building (another farcical union entity, in my opinion). I photographed it last summer but didn’t use the pics for anything until now.

The posters that adorned the windows of this place all have one thing in common. (Aside: how’s that “Health Care ’09” thing working out for ya?) Most of these have since been removed. Do you know what that is?

Have you spotted it yet? All that talk of evil CEOs and profits clued you in yet? Or do you recognize any familiar logos?

Here ya go. SEIU union logos all over the place. That URL on the one poster, healthcareforamericanow.org, well that’s interesting. According to the Discover the Networks website, this group is a front, controlled by the AFL-CIO and other unions! In other words, Don Morrison and his group are simply not-so-cleverly-disguised union lackeys.

The KFYR-TV report focused more on a five minute spat that was going on just as I arrived, which quickly turned into a relatively amicable discussion between both sides for the next forty-five minutes and ended in a bunch of handshakes. In the web version they put up a web link to the union front group ndpeople.org but didn’t do the same for the organizers of the event. More importantly, they completely ignored the fact that this entire counter-protest was a 100% union operation. Well, I guess that’s what the “new media” is for – connecting the dots that otherwise go unreported.

The afternoon was fun; I got to spend my lunch break outside with some pals, we had some good spirited political discussion, and it was Taco Tuesday at our local Taco John’s. Lots of people honked, and I saw some interesting hand-signals flashed at the union group on the corner. The counter-protesters exercised the same freedom of speech that we did, even if they did have to staff it with union labor in order to try getting their message out.

Finally, some sun

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What better opportunity to take my little toddlers outside and let ’em play in the sun and snow? We journeyed downtown to an empty parking lot Saturday to play. We built a snowman, something my Texan wife was unfamiliar with, as well as other snow and toy-related activities. There has been no shortage of snow to play in this winter; however, the temperatures were not very toddler-friendly.

My little three year old is terribly excited to go geocaching this year. He talks all the time about how, when the snow melts and it gets nice out, we get to go geocaching and fishing. The cute part is that he has no idea what geocaching is! It’s just that he gets to go outside and do it with his daddy. That works for me. Think Spring!

I’d love to know the story behind these flags

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This large vacant lot along North 19th Street in Bismarck becomes the home of an enormous snow pile during the winter. We’ve had plenty of snow this winter, so the lot has been filling up over the past few months. In order to maximize the space, the snow is pushed into piles as it accumulates. These days there’s a surprise atop a couple of the piles if you look closely.

Some enterprising soul has put a couple of United States flags atop these snow piles. I don’t know if they were placed there as the snow was piled, or if some hiked out on top of the vast expanse of snow to place them. But they’re there…waving proudly.

Hopefully they don’t fall into the muck as the snow melts…whoever put them there, I hope they keep an eye on them. In any case, it was really neat to look over one afternoon and see the flags waving on top of a monument to the bountiful winter we’ve had so far!