Edition 9-17-05

	I don't usually start out with humor but if you live in Florida you'll understand. Four women were driving across the country. Each one was from a different state: Idaho, Nebraska, Florida and New York. Shortly after the trip began, the woman from Idaho started pulling potatoes from her bag and throwing them out of the window. "What the heck are you doing?" demanded the Nebraskan. "We have so many of these darn things in Idaho, I am just sick of looking at them!" A moment later, the gal from Nebraska began pulling ears of corn from her bag and tossing them from the window. "What are you doing that for?" asked the gal from Florida. "We have so many of these things in Nebraska, I am just sick of looking at them!" Inspired, the gal from Florida opened the car door and pushed the New Yorker out. Sold! To the man with $2.6 billion Skype the bad-boy VoIP company (founder Niklas Zennstrom also started Kazaa, the free peer-to-peer file-swapping service) was acquired this week by eBay for $2.6 billion in cash and stock. The blogosphere in general, and CNET's own Alpha bloggers in particular, are abuzz over this move Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee riders need to know that their respective states have already begun pre-filing legislation for their respective 2006 legislative sessions. Delaware’s pre-filing began on July 2, 2005, Florida’s pre-filing began June 24, 2005, Kentucky’s pre-filing began April 14, 2005, and Tennessee’s pre-filing began June 29, 2005. Remember, influence is a year-round process. AMA members, state motorcyclists rights organizations, and all riders must keep in touch with their elected officials on a regular basis, both at home and in their capitol offices, so they know you personally and are always familiar with motorcycling issues.
ABATE OF FLORIDA NEXT STATE MEETING For more than a decade, Memphis, Tennessee's Jerry "The King" Lawler has been the reigning monarch of the WWE announce table. Sitting alongside Jim Ross and recently Jonathan Coachman, Lawler will be broadcasting Sunday's Unforgiven pay per view live from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. "Everybody in Oklahoma City is really excited, but no one more then good ole' JR. We usually are allotted a certain amount of free tickets but JR has gone way over his limit on this thing -- every relative, friend, and member of the Oklahoma Sooners football team is going to be there," Lawler told Wrestletalk radio Sunday night. There has to be some trepidation for Ross however, as he frequently has bad luck in his hometown.
Forget to put the check in? Need to unseal an envelope - put it in the freezer for a few hours, then slide a knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed.
Crisp County, Georgia motorcyclists are working to reverse a policy that prevents students from riding motorcycles to their local high school. The issue arose when the principal at Crisp County High School denied a student's request for a parking permit because he wanted to ride a motorcycle to school. The principal then went to the school board and the board passed a policy banning students from riding motorcycles to the high school, even though students have been allowed to do so in the past. The policy does not apply to faculty and staff, who can ride to the school. The ban didn't seem right to AMA member James Musselwhite, himself a 1962 graduate of the same school. Musselwhite and other motorcyclists in Crisp County are working to overturn the ban. One of those is Jim George, the president of ABATE of Georgia, who happens to live in Crisp County, a small, rural county in south-central Georgia. Both Musselwhite and George spoke against the ban at a subsequent school board meeting. "In cases like this, the best approach is grassroots action," said Terry Lee Cook, the AMA Government Relations Department grassroots manager. "Local elected officials pay attention when their neighbors, the people who vote them in and out of office, let them know they're doing something wrong. And that's what motorcyclists in Crisp County are telling their school board." The AMA will continue to work with local motorcyclists on the issue.
Message from Attorney General Charlie Crist This past Wednesday was the 191st anniversary of the writing of our National Anthem. In a cruel twist of fate, a federal judge in California chose that exact day to declare unconstitutional our nation’s beloved Pledge of Allegiance, which honors the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the first place. The appeals court ruling that led to the judge’s conclusion was outrageous, and I am confident the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually toss this opinion where it rightly belongs - on the legal scrap heap. The judge based his ruling on a three-year-old ruling by the court he answers to - the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit holds the distinction of having its decisions overturned by the Supreme Court more often than any other federal appeals court. The 9th Circuit’s unfathomable decision against reciting the Pledge in public schools centers on the phrase that declares the United States to be "one nation under God." Even though this phrase simply reflects the fact that the Founding Fathers conceived our nation on broad concepts of faith and endorsed no particular religion over another, the San Francisco court somehow concluded that reciting those words in public schools amounted to the establishment of a religion. Our office has filed briefs in both the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Pledge. The 31 words of the Pledge of Allegiance offer a daily affirmation of each American’s loyalty to, and respect for, the greatest nation on earth. By reciting the Pledge, we declare our allegiance to both the flag and the country it represents. We also acknowledge that the United States was, in fact, founded as "one nation under God" - reflecting the same faith shown by the Founding Fathers when, in the Declaration of Independence, they launched a revolution "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence." Through the Pledge, we express the confidence that our "indivisible" nation cannot be broken apart. And we commit ourselves to that most noble of goals, "liberty and justice for all." In ruling against the recitation of the Pledge in public schools, the San Francisco court ignored not just common sense, but also the very intent of those who added the words "under God" to the Pledge. As he signed the legislation incorporating those two words into the Pledge on Flag Day in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower made it clear the change was designed to reflect our nation’s broad values. "In this way," he said, "we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war." On Wednesday, on the steps of the Historic (Old) Capitol in Tallahassee, more than 100 young men from the chorus programs of three Tallahassee high schools assembled to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." They were truly an inspiration to all who heard them. They came to honor America and all it stands for, just as they do each day at school when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Any suggestion that their daily recitation of the Pledge somehow violates the Constitution is misguided and absurd. Such a ruling cannot stand, and I am confident that in time, the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the 9th Circuit and restore the Pledge to its widely accepted wording. Charlie Crist
Things I have learned from watching the news on TV during the last eight days: The hurricane only hit black families' property New Orleans was devastated and no other city was affected by the hurricane Mississippi is reported to have a tree blown down New Orleans has no white people The hurricane blew a limb off a tree in the yard of an Alabama resident When you are hungry after a hurricane, steal a big screen TV The hurricane did 23 billion dollars in improvements to New Orleans: now the city is welfare, looters and gang free and they are in your city. White folks don't make good news stories Don't give thanks to the thousands that came to help rescue you, instead bitch because the government hasn't given you a debit card yet Only black family members got separated in the hurricane rescue efforts Ignore warnings to evacuate and the white folks will come get you and give you money for being stupid I feel so sorry for all those black folks. The only way it could have been worse was to be white.
TALLAHASSEE – The State of Florida recently closed on more than 725 acres in the St. Johns River Blueway Florida Forever project. Located in St. Johns County just a mile east of the banks of the state’s longest river, the acquisition is some of the first land to be conserved as part of the project. “This acquisition is the first of a Florida Forever project that will preserve the shoreline of the St. Johns River and several of its tributaries,” said Secretary Castille. “When complete, the project will conserve undeveloped shoreline, enhance water quality and protect archaeological and historical resources along the 310-mile waterway.” The St. Johns River Blueway Florida Forever project contains close to 28,000 acres of floodplain swamp and forested lands, and bounds the Watson Island State Forest and the west bank of the St. Johns River. Located in one of the fastest growing regions of the state, the project will protect habitat for threatened Florida wildlife like the bald eagle.
The level of cancer-causing particles in the air of smoke- filled bars and casinos is higher than on truck-choked highways, researchers said. The study, conducted in a casino, six bars and a pool hall in Wilmington, Del., assessed air quality in the eight hospitality venues on Friday evenings before and after a state smoking ban was implemented. "This research clearly shows that it is far worse for your health to be a bartender or casino dealer in a smoking-permitted establishment than it is to be a turnpike toll collector," says study author James L. Repace of Boston's Tufts University School of Medicine. The findings are published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
WORD of the DAY
assay \a-SAY\ verb 1 : try, attempt 2 a : to analyze (as an ore) for one or more specific components b : to judge the worth of : estimate Example sentence:* A certified laboratory will assay the samples of gold and silver to determine their levels of purity. Did you know? Usage experts warn against confusing the verbs "assay" and "essay." Some confusion shouldn't be surprising, since the two words look alike and derive from the same root, the Middle French "essai," meaning "test" or "effort" (a root that in turn comes from the Late Latin "exagium," meaning "act of weighing"). At one time, the two terms were synonyms, sharing the meaning "try" or "attempt," but many modern usage commentators recommend that you differentiate the two words, using "essay" when you mean "to try or attempt" (as in "he will essay a dramatic role for the first time") and "assay" to mean "to test or evaluate" (as in "the blood was assayed to detect the presence of the antibody"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
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