Ryan,

It was exactly ten years ago that I first cradled you in the crook of my arm. It was 5:30am on a gray April morning. Out of the hospital window I could see a light snowfall and the chill of winter seemed to be desperately holding off the changing of the seasons. But for me, it was the real first day of spring. After a sleepless night of waiting for you to come into the world, you finally arrived.

I held your mother’s hand for most of those early morning hours; reassuring her that everything would be all right. And I knew it would be, except for the thirty seconds or so when I saw the umbilical cord wrapped around your neck and I forgot how to exhale. But the doctor deftly slipped it back over your head and it wasn’t long before you were as pink and perfect as a newborn baby should be – 7lbs, 1oz. Your “official” time of birth was 5:18. The irony that 5-18 is my own birthday was not lost on me.

I rocked slowly back and forth in a rocking chair that the nurses brought to us as mom slept beside me in her hospital bed. I was exhausted and relieved at the same time. It wasnÂ’t long before I noticed a few tears of joy running down my cheeks as I looked into your little face. At that moment there was just the three of us and no one else existed. It was so quiet I could almost hear my own heart beating. That birthing room, so peaceful with the lights dimmed, was like a transport taking me to a world larger than the one that existed before I walked into that hospital - the world of a parent.

From that moment, everything changed. In ten years, I’ve tried to experience my life through your eyes. And many times, despite all the moments of frustration, anxiety and even anger, I’ve come to be reminded just how special a world this is. I laughed when you laughed, I hurt when you hurt and, so often when everything seemed to me to be so complicated, you helped give me perspective. You have before you a gift; a life to live with hopefully a long time to enjoy it. But I have been given a wonderful gift as well – the opportunity to be your father.

Happy birthday, son.

Posted by: Gary at 06:45 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Just about made me cry there ....

Posted by: mdmhvonpa at April 05, 2006 08:38 AM (axVEU)

2 Well, I may or may not be "rfa," but "yfbil" and I wish him a very happy birthday!

Posted by: Georgia Girl (rfa!) at April 05, 2006 10:04 PM (EvFfn)

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By now everyone has heard that Rep. Tom DeLay is no longer seeking re-election.

So it looks like the Democrats can scratch TX-22 off their list of target races this year. As Tom Bevan at RCP Blog points out:

"President Bush won the 22nd district in Texas with 64% of the vote in 2004, and with DeLay gone the Democratic nominee, former Congressman Nick Lampson, is unlikely to overcome that structural GOP advantage."

Thanks, Tom. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

Posted by: Gary at 11:45 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 The "hammer" is just one of many hopelessly corrupt republicans. Cant wait until Novemeber when we can srart reclaiming our country from the Bush taliban regime.

Posted by: Dan Quail at April 04, 2006 04:04 PM (Rpc8P)

2 ha, ha - the republicans voted 42 to 8 against the creation of an independant house of public integrity so as to reform congressional ethics, whereas the dems voted 22 to 20 in favor. i once thought that dems were only twice as moral as republicans in light of the abramoff scandal but it now seems that were 3.7 times more moral than your corrupt party.

Posted by: kyle Foley at April 04, 2006 05:01 PM (8Ag0m)

3 Kyle, I understand that you're a hopeless loser screaming for attention. But could you please refrain from double posting the same inane comment on two different posts? You're wasting my bandwidth. You commented the exact thing three posts down. Or better yet, put your comment on the relevant post to begin with.

Posted by: Gary at April 04, 2006 05:11 PM (AI6v2)

4 in other words, you concede that your party is corrupt.

Posted by: kyle Foley at April 04, 2006 08:05 PM (8Ag0m)

5 No, the only thing that I concede is that you are a major-league dork. I don't know whether or not you're familiar with my comment policy. I encourage you to read it. Your "contributions" are borderline annoying but not worth my trouble to delete. Don't push it.

Posted by: Gary at April 04, 2006 09:49 PM (AI6v2)

6 as i recall insulting someone does not prove that a party is not corrupt. face it, you know you're party is morally bankrupt. you're afraid to admit the truth. as for global warming, 85% of americans believe in global warming - you are way out of the mainstream, even evangelicals are joing the fray. what is wrong with sacrificing personal wealth so that our kids can lead a better life? you're selfish, greedy, profligate, lazy.

Posted by: kyle Foley at April 04, 2006 10:32 PM (8Ag0m)

7 also, there must be a time when you admit that global warming is in fact reality. how many years have to go by with the temp increasing at the same rate before you repent? 5? 10? 20?

Posted by: kyle Foley at April 05, 2006 01:37 AM (8Ag0m)

8 actually let's go with how many inches or feet does the ocean have to rise before you repent? 6 inches, one foot, two feet? face it, if you were king of the world you would act after it was too late.

Posted by: kyle Foley at April 05, 2006 04:55 AM (8Ag0m)

9 If I were King of the World, I'd make you my court jester. How much of a total loser does someone have to be to stay up all night and rant about global warning. Where you tossing and turning between 1:37AM and 4:55AM thinking of that last retort? Dude, do yourself a favor and seek professional help (or find someone better if you already are). Ciao.

Posted by: Gary at April 05, 2006 05:53 AM (AI6v2)

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Only with thirty years notice and, hopefully, no assistance from Ben Affleck.

Dear NASA: Get you asses in gear, please!

h/t: The Corner

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I've often marvelled at the deep intensity of the anger and hate that the Left so often directs towards President Bush, Republicans in general and anything with a hint of Conservatism.

Back in the '90's, when I was a registered Democrat, I encountered my share of "Clinton Haters" such as they were. But "hater" doesn't accurately describe what I saw and heard. I think "disdain" would be more on the money. Maybe the worst I experienced could be called "personal disgust". The "Clinton Lied" meme was based on the theory that he was guilty of "waging the dog" by lobbing cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Sudan to deflect attention from his personal scandals. But then, one of his former handlers, Dick Morris, has confirmed this was actually the case. And lest we forget he did admit to lying to a grand jury. Which of course the anti-Bush crowd turned into their mantra "Clinton Lied, Nobody Died" - it was all just about sex, don't you know? What's the big deal?

But (aside from some regulars on the "Freeper" boards) the antipathy of the so-called "Clinton Haters" never rose to anywhere near the level of intensity demonstrated by today's Left on a daily basis. It's ironic that the 527 entity that was created to defend Clinton during his impeachment - "MoveOn.org" - has now morphed into an attack machine against Bush and his party. And for some people, "Bush-bashing" has become a career. I've often wondered why this is so. Why is the Left so damn angry and bitter and filled with gob-smacking bile toward the Right?

Dennis Prager looks at this phenomenon is his column today at TownHall.com. The answer, states Prager, comes from the moral superiority that Liberals (particularly the extreme Left) feel towards anyone who disagrees with them.

As Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, said on national TV, "Our moral values, in contradiction to the Republicans', is we don't think kids ought to go to bed hungry at night." Republicans don't care about starving children. Liberals deem conservatives to be racist, homophobic, war mongering, money worshipping and sexist. It makes perfect sense to hate such people. I would, too.

The converse is not true. Conservatives tend to view liberals as immature and foolish. But childish adults and fools don't merit the hatred that racists do. And the liberal charge that conservatives generally label war critics "traitors" is pure fabrication.

Liberals may counter that conservatives hated President Bill Clinton. But that hatred has been more than matched by liberals' hatred for George W. Bush. And more to the point, Bill Clinton is one individual. Liberals hate virtually all conservatives with the same intensity that many conservatives hated one man named Bill Clinton.

There are conservative examples of such hatred. But they are much more rare. I am comparing the typical passionate liberal with the equally passionate conservative.

But if Democrats and Liberals are serious about getting back in power they first need to recognize that people who take the time to exercise their right to vote do so more often than not to vote FOR something rather than AGAINST something. If they don't give the electorate something to vote for, their chances of success aren't good. More likely the average swing voter will wonder what I'm wondering: What exactly is wrong with these people?

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This week's RINO Sightings hosted by Right Thoughts.

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The winner of the "Melrose Place" Division is Courtney Thorne-Smith with 63.6% of the vote. Courtney will now advance to the Semi-Final round against Morgan Fairchild.

In the meantime, the new poll is up for the Vicki Vale Division. This division was so-named because Sean Young was the first actress cast to play this role in the 1989 film "Batman" but an on-set injury led to Kim Basinger being hired as her replacement.

View the updated 80's Crush Bracket HERE. Voting is open until noon Wednesday.

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Well, despite the prospect of seeing 48-year old Sharon Stone stark naked and performing deviant sex acts, the much-hyped sequel to "Basic Instinct" made as much money this weekend as "Larry The Cable Guy: Health Inspector" (which is in its second week of release).

And who does the director of the original film blame? The U.S. government. No, really?!? Dutch-born Paul Vernoeven, the man who brought you such flops as "Showgirls" and "Hollow Man", says that the American government has been foisting its Christian values on its citizenry, making them unwilling to embrace "erotica".

"Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States," said the Dutch native. "Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends."

Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987's seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale "Fatal Attraction," agrees, noting that the genre's downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.

"We're in a big puritanical mode," he said. "Now, it's like the McCarthy era, except it's not 'Are you a communist?' but 'Have you ever put sex in a movie?'"

Even people who are really into "erotic" thrillers could see this one for what it is: a rehashed concept without any of the elements that made the original so popular.

Posted by: Gary at 11:26 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Last week's cover of Time:

Scaring people must drive circulation up. What other reason would there be to waste time on an unproven theory? George Will reminds us that it was only about thirty years ago that these same "experts" had nothing but dire warnings for the coming Ice Age:

While worrying about Montana's receding glaciers, Schweitzer, who is 50, should also worry about the fact that when he was 20 he was told to be worried, very worried, about global cooling. Science magazine (Dec. 10, 1976) warned of "extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation." Science Digest (February 1973) reported that "the world's climatologists are agreed" that we must "prepare for the next ice age." The Christian Science Monitor ("Warning: Earth's Climate is Changing Faster Than Even Experts Expect," Aug. 27, 1974) reported that glaciers "have begun to advance," "growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter" and "the North Atlantic is cooling down about as fast as an ocean can cool." Newsweek agreed ("The Cooling World," April 28, 1975) that meteorologists "are almost unanimous" that catastrophic famines might result from the global cooling that the New York Times (Sept. 14, 1975) said "may mark the return to another ice age." The Times (May 21, 1975) also said "a major cooling of the climate is widely considered inevitable" now that it is "well established" that the Northern Hemisphere's climate "has been getting cooler since about 1950."

The forces of nature are mightier than anything humans can dish out. Until someone somewhere can come up with some undeniable proof that human activity is in any way linked to this natural process, I remain skeptical...very skeptical.

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UPDATE - 4:15pm:
METS WIN!!! 3-2
Glavine pitches a solid 6 innings for the win. Wagner turns out the lights - three up, three down. Excellent.

--------------------------------------------------

Finally!

Ah, spring. Opening Day, when every team is tied for first.

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Sorry, guys. No 80's Crush contestant this week.

March Madness may be winding down but the "80's Crush" post-March Madness Tournament is kicking off today!

So far, there have been twelve 80's Crushes - all my picks. Now it's time for you to vote. Here's how it works: Each gal will face off in a match-up of my choosing. Those women I rated a "10 out of 10" and the highest ranked number "9 out of 10" get first round byes.

The remaining eight have been grouped accordingly:

- The "Melrose Place" Division - Both Daphne Zuniga and Courtney Thorne-Smith starred on the TV show "Melrose Place" (they're the first match-up)

- The "Friends" Division - Both Lea Thompson and Kathleen Turner had guest spots on the popular comedy "Friends"

- The Pacific Division - Molly Ringwald is from California and Erin Gray is from Hawaii

- The Vicki Vale Division - Sean Young was the first actress cast to play this role in the 1989 film "Batman" but an on-set injury led to Kim Basinger being hired as her replacement.

View the 80's Crush Bracket HERE.

Each poll - located in the sidebar to the left - will be open for 48-72 hours, depending on my schedule. The first poll is live. Voting closes Monday at noon.

Go HERE to see the entire 80's Crush Vault

In the meantime, go find out who Sadie's male 80's Crush is.

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