rickety – Page 11

Paul Tackles Old Age

February 28, 2011 by rickety 1 Comment

Paul seems to think my eyes aren’t able to see quite as well as when I was his age. So for his latest project he programmed a jumbo universal remote that Megan bought from Deseret Industries. It cost $1.50 because the battery cover was missing. But there is nothing that Paul can’t fix with a little duct tape.

At the moment the remote will control the television and the VCR. It also controls the family room and stair lights because Paul thinks my legs aren’t getting any younger either.

Paul figured if he gave me the remote directly I would be offended and wouldn’t use it so he left it laying on the couch. Right on cue I picked it up and started trying the buttons. Tonight I looked on the remote hoping to find a jumbo “PP” button — the one that will turn off Paul’s Projects, at least for a little while.

Sledding Near Miss

February 26, 2011 by rickety 2 Comments

Sarah, Bryson, and Aurora ready to sled

There was snow on the ground so Adelaide, Sarah, the grandchildren, Jill, and I went sledding. We picked a very small hill for the grandchildren and took our cameras. Click on the images to enlarge. The videos are usually not visible in a feed reader. In the screencap below I have circled a girl in pink at the bottom of the hill. Keep your eye on her when you play the accompanying video of Bryson and I sledding.

Sledding near miss

Adelaide took the photograph below as we narrowly missed the little girl in pink. You can see how close we came. I still had the camera rolling.

The near miss, taken from a different angle

Aurora in the snow

Bryson with a snowball

Cassandra

Adelaide, Aurora, and Cassandra sledding

Sarah and Bryson sledding

Presidents on Arms

February 25, 2011 by rickety Leave a Comment

The right of the People to keep and bear arms

The Second Amendment, adopted on December 15, 1791, is the part of the Bill of Rights that protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Recently the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia. The Court also ruled that limits placed on the federal government also apply to State and local governments.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The version above was passed by Congress. The version ratified by the States does not capitalize militia or arms but does capitalize People.

Collected herein is a quote from each president about arms. Do you have a favorite?

George Washington
(1789–1797)

“A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.”

John Adams
(1797–1801)

“Opposition, nay, open, avowed resistance by arms, against usurpation and lawless violence, is not rebellion by the law of God or the land.”

Thomas Jefferson
(1801–1809)

“No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”

James Madison
(1809–1817)

“[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

James Monroe
(1817–1825)

“The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.”

John Quincy Adams
(1825–1829)

“…it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense in the presence of all the other nations of the earth.”

Andrew Jackson
(1829–1837)

“Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe.”

Martin Van Buren
(1837–1841)

“[Great Britain] taunted us with our weakness, railed at our fir-built frigates, lightly estimated our prowess and our resources and despised our reiterated declarations of a necessity and a determination to resort to arms for a redress of wrongs.”

William Henry Harrison
(1841)

“Can the citizens of a free country, who have taken arms to defend its rights, think of submitting to an army composed of mercenary soldiers, reluctant Canadians goaded to the field by the bayonet, and of wretched, naked savages?”

John Tyler
(1841–1845)

“A principle much more controlling was found in the love of order and obedience to the laws, which, with mere individual exceptions, everywhere possesses the American mind, and controls with an influence far more powerful than hosts of armed men.”

James Polk
(1845–1849)

“Our reliance for protection and defense on the land must be mainly on our citizen soldiers, who will be ever ready, as they ever have been ready in times past, to rush with alacrity, at the call of their country, to her defense.”

Zachary Taylor
(1849–1850)

“It is to be hoped that no international question can now arise which a government confident in its own strength and resolved to protect its own just rights may not settle by wise negotiation; and it eminently becomes a government like our own, founded on the morality and intelligence of its citizens and upheld by their affections, to exhaust every resort of honorable diplomacy before appealing to arms.”

Millard Fillmore
(1850–1853)

“To maintain this Union by force of arms, merely, would require a standing army that would exhaust all the resources of the nation, and necessarily convert our Government into a military despotism. This is a result that no patriot can contemplate without horror.”

Franklin Pierce
(1853–1857)

“…never to shrink from war when the rights and the honor of the country call us to arms, but to cultivate in preference the arts of peace, seek enlargement of the rights of neutrality, and elevate and liberalize the intercourse of nations…”

James Buchanan
(1857–1861)

“[Brigham Young] has therefore for several years, in order to maintain his independence, been industriously employed in collecting and fabricating arms and munitions of war and in disciplining the Mormons for military service.”

Abraham Lincoln
(1861–1865)

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.”

Andrew Johnson
(1865–1869)

“…the other [act of Congress] is contrary to the express declaration of the Constitution that ‘a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'”

Ulysses Grant
(1869–1877)

“When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.”

Rutherford Hayes
(1877–1881)

“We cared nothing for foreign nations: they were too far, too distant; and anyway, with the North and South united, as I believe they now are, in feeling, we can meet the world in arms against us.”

James Garfield
(1881)

“Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, arm and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace produce all the necessary implements of labor.”

Chester Arthur
(1881–1885)

“But if we heed the teachings of history we shall not forget that in the life of every nation emergencies may arise when a resort to arms can alone save it from dishonor.”

Grover Cleveland
(1885–1889 & 1893–1897)

“With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we should cultivate closer relations; and for our common prosperity and advancement we should invite them all to join with us in an agreement that for the future all international troubles in North or South America shall be adjusted by impartial arbitration, and not by arms.”

Benjamin Harrison
(1889–1893)

“If there is too much exuberance in the thought that we can whip the world, it is a safe saying that we can defend our land and coasts against any part of the world that will ever be in arms against us.”

William McKinley
(1897–1901)

“It is asserted that the western provinces are already well-nigh reclaimed, that the planting of cane and tobacco therein has been resumed, and that by force of arms and new and ample reforms very early and complete pacification is hoped for.”

Theodore Roosevelt
(1901–1909)

“We desire the peace which comes as of right to the just man armed; not the peace granted on terms of ignominy to the craven and the weakling.”

William Howard Taft
(1909–1913)

“We shall enter into any war with a full conscious-
ness of the awful consequences that it always entails, whether successful or not, and we, of course, shall make every effort consistent with national honor and the highest national interest to avoid a resort to arms.”

Woodrow Wilson
(1913–1921)

“We must depend in every time of national peril, in the future as in the past, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms.”

Warren Harding
(1921–1923)

“Amid it all we have riveted the gaze of all civilization to the unselfishness and the righteousness of representative democracy, where our freedom never has made offensive warfare, never has sought territorial aggrandizement through force, never has turned to the arbitrament of arms until reason has been exhausted.”

Calvin Coolidge
(1923–1929)

“We do not know of any nation which has ever been able to provide arms enough so as always to be at peace.”

Herbert Hoover
(1929–1933)

“The smaller the armed forces of the world, the less will be the number of men withdrawn from the creative and productive labors.”

Franklin Roosevelt
(1933–1945)

“But even a nation well armed and well organized from a strictly military standpoint may, after a period of time, meet defeat if it is unnerved by self-distrust, endangered by class prejudice, by dissension between capital and labor, by false economy and by other unsolved social problems at home.”

Harry Truman
(1945–1953)

“We must preserve our national strength. Strength is not simply a matter of arms and force. It is a matter of economic growth, and social health, and vigorous institutions, public and private.”

Dwight Eisenhower
(1953–1961)

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

John Kennedy
(1961–1963)

“By calling attention to ‘a well regulated militia,’ ‘the security of the nation,’ and the right of each citizen ‘to keep and bear arms,’ our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy…”

Lyndon Johnson
(1963–1969)

“Yet as we protect freedom by courage in arms, we shall every day continue the search for an honorable peace. It is tragic that young lives must be sacrificed, that great sums must be spent for the instruments of war, when the work of peace awaits man’s accomplishment in every land.”

Richard Nixon
(1969–1974)

“[President Eisenhower’s] life reminds us that there is a moral force in this world more powerful than the might of arms or the wealth of nations.”

Gerald Ford
(1974–1977)

“America must remain first in keeping peace in the world. We can remain first in peace only if we are never second in defense.”

Jimmy Carter
(1977–1981)

“Our stand for peace is suspect if we are also the principal arms merchant of the world.”

Ronald Reagan
(1981–1989)

“You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up and if you don’t actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time…”

George H. W. Bush
(1989–1993)

“A world once divided into two armed camps now recognizes one sole and preeminent power, the United States of America.”

Bill Clinton
(1993–2001)

“In the end, all the world’s wealth and a thousand armies are no match for the strength and decency of the human spirit.”

George W. Bush
(2001–2009)

“I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun.”

Barack Obama
(2009–)

“As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms. But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right, in the same way that we have a right to private property but local governments can establish zoning ordinances that determine how you can use it.”

Sources

The Presidents Series

Chrome’s Dead, Jim!

February 25, 2011 by rickety 4 Comments

The page I was viewing in Chrome died today, as you can see from the message. This doesn’t happen very often and when it does, just the one page dies and not the whole browser. I like amusing error messages, it soothes the pain of a crash.

For the one or two people on the Internet who don’t know who Jim is or who said, “He’s Dead, Jim!” watch the video or click on the error message.

Bryson Visits Brigham City Temple Construction Site

February 23, 2011 by rickety 3 Comments

Jill was in Brigham City today at the temple site. Construction continues on the north-east corner of the temple. Since Jill viewed the construction two weeks ago, the corner has risen to the same height as the other corners of the temple.

Bryson, taking some refreshment, posed in front of the construction at the viewing area.

Reduce, Reform, and Restrict National Government

February 22, 2011 by rickety 1 Comment

Shays' Rebellion, a clash between farmers and merchants, threatened to plunge the states into civil war

The Revolutionary War left many of the colonies deep in debt because of borrowing for troops and weapons. States tried to pay back these debts in Continentals, printed by the Confederation Congress, but people wanted gold and silver that had real value. Each state was printing its own money, causing disputes over what each currency was really worth.

The Confederation Congress could not raise taxes nor use a court system to force states to trade with each other. Some farmers refused to pay taxes and took up arms causing the federal militia to be called out to stop the rebellion. Obviously a stronger national government was needed. From this need evolved our current Federal Government.

A number of people recently have expressed delight that the Federal Government may have to close down. They feel that we would all be better off with no national government at all. Clearly, if history is understood, we cannot return to the days before the Constitution and all the problems a weak national government entailed.

Rather, we need to insist on the government the Constitution gave us. The set of fundamental principles and established precedents detailed in the Constitution outline how we are to be governed. If the Founders thought that no national government was necessary, they would never have met in Philadelphia and given us the Constitution.

The real problem is not that we have a national government but that Washington has overreached its power, overspent its budget, and overrun state sovereignty. A reduced, reformed national government, restricted to its enumerated powers, should be our goal.

100 Years Ago: War, Death, and Western Pacific

February 20, 2011 by rickety Leave a Comment

The following was adapted from the Improvement Era magazine of February 1911.

No More War?

For the abolition of international war, Mr. Andrew Carnegie has transferred to a board of trustees, twenty-seven in number, Senator Root of New York as president, ten million dollars, in five per cent first mortgage bonds.

Andrew Carnegie in 1913

The proceeds, five hundred thousand dollars annually, is to be freely used by the board to establish a lasting, world-wide peace.

When war is abolished, the fund is still to be used for the banishment of the next most degrading evil.

[100 years later, we have wars or conflicts in Afghanistan, Balochistan, Cambodia, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ingushetia, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, North Caucasus, North West Pakistan, Sahara, Somalia, South Thailand, South Yemen, Sudan, and Yemeni.

Founded in 1910, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is still in operation.]

Falling Mule Death

Elder John Edward Kirkman, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Kirkman, of Salt Lake City, and who was laboring as a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands, came to his death by drowning in the sea, on January 10.

He was riding a mule along the edge of a precipitous cliff on the island of Maui, when the mule missed its footing and fell with its rider into the sea, and both were carried away with the tide.

Elder Kirkman’s body was found on January 15, and was buried in Kipehulu.

[This is not the end of the Falling Mule story]

Passenger Interchange

The Western Pacific Railway has arranged with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Santa Fe for the interchange of passengers. This now gives Salt Lake City three trans-continental lines.

The Western Pacific promises to become a strong factor in the material development of the territory traversed by it in Utah, Nevada and California.

[Western Pacific was acquired in 1983 by Union Pacific. In 1988, Rio Grande Industries purchased the Southern Pacific Railroad, the combined company taking the Southern Pacific name. In 1995, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. In 1996 Southern Pacific was purchased by Union Pacific.]

Adapted from: “Passing Events”, Improvement Era, Vol. XIV. February, 1911. No. 4.

The Book of Mormon and Scalable Vector Graphics

February 18, 2011 by rickety 4 Comments

A snapshot of a portion of the Book of Mormon Site

Your first question might be, “How are the Book of Mormon and Scalable Vector Graphics connected?” Or perhaps, “What is the Book of Mormon?” or, “What are Scalable Vector Graphics?” There are plenty of people who can tell you about the Book of Mormon, for example at lds.org or any of these people.

Scalable Vector Graphics

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) represent graphic information in a compact portable form. Vector graphics contain commands to draw shapes at specified coordinates. This enables the graphics to be scaled without loss of image quality.

You can see this for yourself in a moment, provided you have the right browser. All major modern web browsers, support and render SVG markup directly with the exception of Microsoft Internet Explorer. However, Internet Explorer 9 beta supports the basic SVG feature set. Click on the link to get Internet Explorer 9 or get a real browser like Firefox or Chrome.

The Connection

About a year ago I wanted to show graphically on a web page how Book of Mormon characters were related. After trying various methods I settled last November on creating a large SVG graphic. I kept a few project notes. I obtained a domain called bomsite.org which could raise a few eyebrows at the Department of Homeland Security until one realizes that bomsite.org is just the home of the Book of Mormon Site.

To summarize, I used SVG because the web page size is small, only 151K bytes so far; the graphics can be scaled; and I could use free tools, like Inkscape to create the SVG.

The Site

Before you head on over to bomsite.org, remember when you get there to try scaling the graphic by holding down the Ctrl (Control) key and dialing your mouse wheel. You should notice that the quality of the graphic remains the same no matter how large you make it.

Who To Do

I still have to move the characters around so that they line up correctly with the timeline. Later I will maybe add non-family connections like who served with which commander, who fought each other, and who converted who.

Such a who to do.

Presidents on Government

February 15, 2011 by rickety 8 Comments

Presidents Day

The federal holiday honoring George Washington began in 1880 in the District of Columbia and expanded in 1885 to include all of the Federal Government. It was celebrated on Washington’s birthday, February 22. In 1971 the holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February and as such never falls on Washington’s actual birthday.

In the 1980s the term “Presidents Day” began its public appearance. Although Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington’s Birthday observances as “Presidents Day”, “Washington and Lincoln Day”, such as Utah, or other such designations.

Collected herein is a quote from each president about government. Do you have a favorite?

George Washington
(1789–1797)

“I entertain a strong hope that the state of the national finances is now sufficiently matured to enable you to enter upon a systematic and effectual arrangement for the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt, according to the right which has been reserved to the Government.”

John Adams
(1797–1801)

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Thomas Jefferson
(1801–1809)

“A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”

James Madison
(1809–1817)

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

James Monroe
(1817–1825)

“The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.”

John Quincy Adams
(1825–1829)

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

Andrew Jackson
(1829–1837)

“As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.”

Martin Van Buren
(1837–1841)

“The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.”

William Henry Harrison
(1841)

“I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.”

John Tyler
(1841–1845)

“So far as it depends on the course of this government, our relations of good will and friendship will be sedulously cultivated with all nations.”

James Polk
(1845–1849)

“The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.”

Zachary Taylor
(1849–1850)

“In any action calculated to promote an object so near the heart of everyone who truly loves his country I will zealously unite with the coordinate branches of the Government.”

Millard Fillmore
(1850–1853)

“God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world.”

Franklin Pierce
(1853–1857)

“The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.”

James Buchanan
(1857–1861)

“The distribution of patronage of the Government is by far the most disagreeable duty of the President.”

Abraham Lincoln
(1861–1865)

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”

Andrew Johnson
(1865–1869)

“The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people.”

Ulysses Grant
(1869–1877)

“When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.”

Rutherford Hayes
(1877–1881)

“There can be no complete and permanent reform of the civil service until public opinion emancipates congressmen from all control and influence over government patronage.”

James Garfield
(1881)

“It is no part of the functions of the National Government to find employment for the people, and if we were to appropriate a hundred millions for his purpose, we should only be taxing 40 millions of people to keep a few thousand employed.”

Chester Arthur
(1881–1885)

“…there has been substantial accord in the doctrine that only such taxes ought to be levied as are necessary for a wise and economical administration of the Government.”

Grover Cleveland
(1885–1889 & 1893–1897)

“It is the responsibility of the citizens to support their government. It is not the responsibility of the government to support its citizens.”

Benjamin Harrison
(1889–1893)

“No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor.”

William McKinley
(1897–1901)

“Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law. It is sometimes sneeringly said by those who do not like free government, that here we count heads. True, heads are counted, but brains also…”

Theodore Roosevelt
(1901–1909)

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”

William Howard Taft
(1909–1913)

“A government is for the benefit of all the people.”

Woodrow Wilson
(1913–1921)

“Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.”

Warren Harding
(1921–1923)

“Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little.”

Calvin Coolidge
(1923–1929)

“The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager.”

Herbert Hoover
(1929–1933)

“When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.”

Franklin Roosevelt
(1933–1945)

“They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers… call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.”

Harry Truman
(1945–1953)

“The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.”

Dwight Eisenhower
(1953–1961)

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

John Kennedy
(1961–1963)

“It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions — by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence.”

Lyndon Johnson
(1963–1969)

“If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.”

Richard Nixon
(1969–1974)

“I don’t think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don’t. The reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic. And emotional.”

Gerald Ford
(1974–1977)

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

Jimmy Carter
(1977–1981)

“The government and the church are two different realms of service, and those in political office have to face a subtle but important difference between the implementation of the high ideals of religious faith and public duty.”

Ronald Reagan
(1981–1989)

“We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And that makes us special among the nations of the earth.”

George H. W. Bush
(1989–1993)

“…the heroic actions of our veterans, the lifesaving work of our scientists and physicians, and generosity of countless individuals who voluntarily give of their time, talents, and energy to help others — all have enriched humankind and affirmed the importance of our Judeo-Christian heritage in shaping our government and values.”

Bill Clinton
(1993–2001)

“Criticism is part of the lifeblood of democracy. No one is right all the time. But we should remember that there is a big difference between criticizing a policy or a politician and demonizing the government that guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who enforce our laws.”

George W. Bush
(2001–2009)

“Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.”

Barack Obama
(2009–)

“In Africa, you often see that the difference between a village where everybody eats and a village where people starve is government. One has a functioning government, and the other does not. Which is why it bothers me when I hear people say that government is the enemy. They don’t understand its fundamental role.”

The Presidents Series

Presidents on Government

Presidents on Arms

Presidents on the United States

« Previous Page

1

…

9

10

11

12

13

…

80

Next Page »

The right of the People to keep and bear arms

Sources

The Presidents Series

No More War?

Falling Mule Death

Passenger Interchange

﻿﻿Scalable Vector Graphics

The Connection

The Site

Who To Do

Presidents Day

The Presidents Series

Scalable Vector Graphics