You will understand the significance of this. Thought I’d share this special moment with all of you. My gmail inbox has 3333 unread messages! That’s great! Ever since I got the Blackberry, I never delete anything from the actual inbox when I’m on the PC. Anyway…3333!!! WOOHOO!

Thanks Elizabeth!

Wetumpka is also hosting their own TEA party. It will be on the 15th at 12pm at Gold Star Park. And also, this Saturday at 11am at Gold Star Park they are going to gather and make signs which people can come out and participate and meet others who plan to attend the rally.

This is the rally we should all attend. Unless you work or live in Montgomery, plan on attending and supporting our Tea Party right here in Wetumpka!!!

If so, then go ahead and skip this post. I won’t wax philosophical on this topic just yet but I did want to share this with everyone who might accidentally stumble across this page.

I just had a gentleman come into the office who is out going door-to-door to promote the Tax Day Tea Party for our area. It is ridiculous how politicians have completely subverted the will of the people and are taking us down the very slippery slope toward socialism at a break-neck speed.

The Tri-County Tea Party will be on April 15th, at high noon at 11 South Union Street in Montgomery, also known as The Alabama State House. There are over 300 of these rallies going on nationwide on tax day and I hope that ours draws a lot of support. Hope to see you there. To go to the Tea Party website, copy and paste this link..http://tricntyteapartycoalition.homestead.com/index.html

Ok. I finally took the initiative and watched the infamous video in which President Obama, according to the White House, did not bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Having viewed the evidence myself, I don’t see how anyone could possibly call it anything else but a bow.

Barack Obama, at least at this point, is the single most powerful individual on the planet. Militarily and financially despite America’s current economic situation. Regardless of whether I agree with his political views (I don’t) and whether I voted for him or not (I didn’t), the President of the most powerful, prosperous, benevolent, and free country in the world shouldn’t bow to anyone.

That’s not to say he shouldn’t respect leaders of others countries. He should. But to bow to the King of a country that doesn’t allow religious freedom, where Christians are persecuted by “religious police”, women don’t have equal rights to men, and the men and women who serve in our military and protect this country aren’t allowed to have a Bible is asinine, to say the least. Let’s not forget that the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This apology tour, as some have dubbed it, has been disheartening. I’ve heard it said that never in the history of our world has there been a country with so much power that exercised such restraint. We have, on more than one occasion, fought in wars that had we lost would have completely altered life as we know it, and we did it willingly. With a heavy, heavy cost. All in the name of freedom for men everywhere. And for my president to bow to a king who tramples on the very liberties that countless men and women, American men and women, have died to preserve is insulting and a slap square in the face. Not to mention their families and every man and woman serving now. It may seem trivial to some but to me it is an absolute shame.

I’ve lived in Elmore County for 36 of my 40 years. It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I went to Frontier Days at Fort Toulouse for the first time and I loved it. Now I’m seeing the French and Indian Encampment sign and I want to go. Can someone fill in the blanks for me about what exactly this is? Is it sort of a different version of the Frontier Days? By the way, don’t you just love Fort Toulouse? It’s a great place to walk, ride a bike, take some pictures, and all kinds of cool stuff. We are lucky to have something like this right here in Wetumpka.

Hate to do this, but I’m turning off anonymous posting. If you disagree with something I wrote, and people will, that’s great but from now on you gotta’ put a name of some kind on it. If you say it, you ought to be willing to say who you are. I would love to debate and discuss some of these things but I’m not going to do it with some nameless being who apparently doesn’t feel strongly enough about what they say to put their name on it.

Don’t take a stand on something and then apologize for taking that stand. Have a backbone, man! Pick one side or the other and stick with it. And no, I don’t hate gay people and I’m not homophobic.

I put my name on everything I write on here. If you disagree with me, that is great. At least have the common courtesy to put your name on it. I can’t imagine why anyone who has an opinion on some of these things wouldn’t sign their name to it. I am copying below the comment left by Jeff Findley, owner and publisher of the Bainbridge, Georgia Post-Searchlight:

You know what bugs me more than just about anything? Someone to criticize, moan, complain, or otherwise just be miserable…and to do so anonymously. I make my living in the newspaper industry (yes, I still have a job and yes community newspapers are still very much relevant. If it wasn’t for newspapers, where do you think all the internet sites would get their news?) And if I get a letter that is not signed, it goes directly in the garbage. If I get a telephone call and the caller will not identify themselves, I end the call. The person above that didn’t appreciate Thad’s comments could have at least had the guts to let him know his/her identity. When I write an opinion piece that people don’t agree with, my photo, name, and contact information is in plain view. If you have a gripe, that’s fine. But at least do so with a name. Stand by your convictions and ideals, we can still be friends. A wise man once said: “If we all think the same way, then no one is thinking.” So to the person with paper-thin skin that doesn’t like adjectives, next time you go onto someone’s blog and want to cast aspersions about that person’s character, have the guts to sign your name.

All the best,
Jeff Findley

I’m thinking about doing some Q&A’s with some local officials, business and civic leaders, and all-around interesting people. The longer I’m in Wetumpka and the more the city grows, the more I discover there are lots of people I’d like to talk to or know more about. For instance, new Wetumpka Chief of Police, Celia Dixon. If there is someone you’d like to suggest as a subject I’d love for you to tell me. Post your suggestions in the comments section or email me at wetumpkanews@gmail.com.

I love sports. College sports in general. University of Alabama sports in particular. It’s great to have a variety of different channels which specialize in showing sports. I can choose from ESPN, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN News, Fox Sports and various other channels that show various sports at times. At some point, I’ve watched some of just about everything. Just in the last couple of weeks I’ve watched basketball, baseball, lacrosse, rugby, and boxing (I hate UFC), among others. Sports is usually what I turn the TV to when I wake up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Just this morning I woke up craving chocolate at about 2 a.m. or so. After my trip to the kitchen, I picked up the remote and went straight for ESPN HD. I don’t remember what was on but it was something that didn’t exactly pique my interest. So, I hit the channel down button one time to ESPN2 and there it was. Poker.

It amazes me that on any given evening as I channel surf I might come across as many as five different channels showing a card game. First of all, I understand that for some reason that is beyond me, some people like watching other people play cards, otherwise it wouldn’t be on TV. But can anyone explain how watching someone else playing cards on TV is exciting? I honestly don’t get it. But that isn’t my real issue here.

What bugs me is that they show poker on ESPN and most of the other sports channels. I will give you watching poker on TV because as my high school English teacher, Sandy Ward, told me once upon hearing me say that Shakespeare was stupid, “Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean that it’s stupid.” I’ve tried to practice that and will in this situation. What my beef basically boils down to is this: POKER IS NOT A SPORT!

There are other activities or games that I don’t think quite fit the strictest definition of what we in America know as sports. Golf, for instance. A game that in 15 or so years of playing, I never improved by a single stroke, so I quit. Craig Stadler, The Walrus, is a world-class professional golfer who won several PGA tournaments including the 1982 Masters, perhaps golf’s most coveted title. Craig Stadler is a large man who doesn’t look much different than your average 50 year old, somewhat overweight golfer that you might see on a local municipal course. While he may not run a sub ten-second 40 yard dash, at least he has the physical coordination and skills that golf requires and he excels at it. And make no mistake, golf requires physical skills and some athleticism.

Some have even thrown auto racing into the “is it a sport or not” debate. Sitting in and driving a car at an incredibly high rate of speed with no air conditioning for 500 miles at the very least requires finely tuned reflexes and a good degree of conditioning.

Playing a card game requires you to be awake. Playing poker on TV specifically requires you be awake and dressed like the Unabomber. Poker, spades, rummy; all of these can be fun games to play. Now, what I’m about to say is not a slight against my mother in any way, shape, form, or fashion. But if I can sit down as a 40 year old, reasonably fit man and play rummy with my 79 year old mother and lose, which I probably would, then that would indicate to me that a card game is not a sport.

Is poker on ESPN a harbinger of things to come? Will I one day find myself glued to the TV for the national Monopoly championship? Scrabble, maybe? “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DIDN’T KNOW THE WORD “QAT!” YOU MORON!” Can you imagine the roof being blown off of Cameron Indoor Stadium by almost 10,000 crazy fans chanting in unison, “JEN-GA, JEN-GA, JEN_GA!” If poker is a sport then Don’t Spill the Beans can’t be too far behind.

My point is this: Maybe I’m a purist but let’s put actual sports on the sports channels. For everyone who likes to watch someone play cards on TV, let’s create a channel for that, but at least give me my football and baseball on ESPN2. Will Texas Hold ‘Em be the next big Olympic event? Hey, they’ve got curling! Poker can be a fun game to play and maybe even watch from time to time. A sport? Nah. Plus, don’t they have a gameshow network? I’m just saying.