Althea Trying On Nice Faces (And Failing In One Attempt)

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This morning I showed my niece Althea the pictures of her twin brother August trying on his mean face (click the link to see his pictures). I asked her if she would also do some mean faces for me. She said she wanted to do nice faces. . .and she mostly succeeded. /jack

POTUS 23: Pres. Benjamin Harrison - The Last Bearded President

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President Benjamin Harrison was a one term Republican. I love that phrase! One term Republican Presidents are my favorite species of Presidents...next to two term Democratic Presidents.

Harrison was 5' 6" tall, and the Democrats called him "Little Ben." President Harrison narrowly won the Presidency; he lost the popular vote and won the electoral college (like Pres. George W. Bush).

Following the death of his wife during his term in office, he seemed to flounder. His party was severely beaten in the mid-term congressional elections. After losing touch with his core supporters, he just didn't have the gas to win the election. Although he was renominated by the Republicans, their luke-warm support cost him the election. He was trounced by Grover Cleveland (POTUS 24 and POTUS 26). He is mainly remembered today as an early proponent of free trade around the world.
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POTUS 27: Pres. William Howard Taft - Who Preferred To Be Remembered As Chief Justice

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President William Howard Taft was a judge, a Governor of The Phillipines, and later The Secretary of War. POTUS 26, Teddy Roosevelt, hand-picked him as successor. President Taft had a fairly uneventful Presidency and lost the re-election to Woodrow Wilson (POTUS 28).

After leaving the White House, he taught law school for years and was eventually tapped to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. President Taft said in later years that he much preferred the bench to the Oval Office.
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[1] B/W photograph corrected and altered digitally. Hand tinted portrait, with added digital background,

$25,000 Worth of Ann Coulter

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Click on the title to link to a news article about her talk at KU last night.

Some samples from her talk at a Kansas university last night: In her opening remarks, she promised to answer questions from liberals, if they can "thrash their way to a coherent thought." "I've come to find I like liberals a lot more," Coulter said. "They're kind of cute when they're cold, shivering and afraid."

When hecklers began yelling at her she said: "I think there are some people in the audience who meant to be at the sexual reorientation class down the hall." And then, she sent a few bullnecks out to clean up the hecklers: "Could 10 of the largest College Republicans start walking up and down the aisles and start removing anyone shouting?" Coulter asked, "otherwise, this lecture is over."

Several people responded, leaving their seats to confront the hecklers, and verbal confrontations erupted in parts of the auditorium. Coulter resumed her critical remarks, calling Sen. Ted Kennedy a "human dirigible" and the Democrats' "spiritual leader." She also made fun of the Democrats' dalliance with filmmaker Michael Moore and former presidential candidate John Kerry, who she said got away with telling "big, fat, enormous lies."

She also blasted the nation's judicial system for its handling of the Terri Schiavo case. "We no longer have a single check on the judiciary," she said.

Coulter was paid $25,000 for her appearance.
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Augie Trying On Mean Faces

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POTUS 9: Pres. William Henry Harrison - The Drive By President

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President Harrison was probably the first empty suit elected to the Presidency. In the end, the damage was slight.

He rode to victory on the coattails of leading a much embroidered battle with Indians called Tippecanoe. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," was his slogan, and it has remained probably the best known campaign slogan in American history. The Whigs selected Harrison as a candidate because they believed in a strong congress and a weak president; Harrison filled the bill perfectly. The Whigs turned out 82% of the eligible voters with such blandishments as live music, baloon rides, and free whiskey.

President Harrison's campaign slogan proved to be prophetic. Harrison died of pneumonia one month and a day after assuming office and was succeeded by President John Tyler. Despite his highly-truncated tenure he is better known than a lot of Presidents. Is he the most prominent amongst the obscure??
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POTUS 34: Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower - A Most Detached President

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Ike was essentially the CEO of World War II. He rose from being a mere Lietunant Colonel in 1941 to a five-star general in 1945. As supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, he commanded the most powerful army, navy, and air force ever assembled on this great green sphere. He commanded the assault on Nazi-occupied France that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. In peacetime he commanded the NATO forces. He ran for President, and stomped Adlai Stevenson. Twice.

He was unable to duplicate his battlefield victories. Ike had a congressional majority for only two years of his presidency, and truth be told, not a lot was accomplished in those eight years. Ike, in particular, turned his back on the great racial divide that would soon fracture the country once again.

There is a large body of scholarship and innuendo to suggest that President Eisenhower, like many of his presidential brethren, catted around and around and around on his wife, Mamie. Kay Summersby, his British driver, is often mentioned as the booty call.

He was succeeded as President by Jack Kennedy in 1961, who narrowly beat Richard M. Nixon, Ike's barely tolerated Vice-President.
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Gee Whiz!

A worker with India's main opposition party displays an antiseptic aftershave made of cow urine at a stall in party headquarters in New Delhi February 25, 2005. Alongside life-sized posters of Hindu nationalist leaders, Indian political activists can now buy lotions, potions and pills to cure anything from cancer to hysteria to piles -- all made from cow urine or dung. (B Mathur/Reuters)

The Skeleton On The Moon

By Jack Brummet
Extraterrestrial Affairs Editor

This source for this post is an article from MUFON's (the Mutual UFO Network) web site. The authorship--like much of UFOlogy is murky. In any case, it is amusing. You have to admit, it would be a little spooky to find footsteps and bodies on the moon.  And wearing jeans!

America'a Apollo 11 lunar module photographed a human skeleton on the moon when it landed there in 1969.

That's the claim of Chinese astrophysicist Dr. Kang Mao-pang,who first floored the world when he released pictures of bare human footprints on the moon at a news conference in Beijing last winter. The scientist claimed to have received those photos --- which were so secret the Apollo 11 astronauts didn't even know they existed -- from "an unimpeachable U.S. source."

The photograph of the human skeleton was included with a second batch of photos and documents he received from the same source. "The Americans have conspired in a cover-up of monumental and possibly even criminal proportions," Dr. Kang told newsmen in Beijing. "They hid photos of bare human footprints on the moon for 20 years and managed to keep the human skeleton secret even longer. The implications of what they found up there are staggering," he continued. "But the Americans apparently feel that nobody else in the world is privileged enough to share the information."

The story goes that Dr. Kang's allegations stunned U.S. space and intelligence experts, one of whom went into hiding after reporters tried to question him in a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Other sources also allegedly refused to comment--even when told that the Chinese expert has copies of over 1,000 NASA photographs that clearly show bare human footprints and a human skeleton on the lunar surface.

Intriguingly, the skeleton appears to have been wearing jeans. Judging from the position of the bones, it seems likely that the person it belonged to was at least partially dismembered and met with a violent death. It is also probable that the skeleton was transported into space long after the person was killed. The decomposition of bone and flesh would not have been possible in the airless atmosphere of the moon. The Chinese expert further noted that the age of the skeleton cannot be estimated without analyzing the bone firsthand.

"Like the footprints on the moon, these photos were taken by a remote camera aboard the lunar lander and were given to me by an American source who is beyond reproach," said Dr. Kang. "I am also in the possession of classified documents and letters that describe the footprints as being fresh and the skeleton unquestionably human. The question that must be answered is how the footprints and skeleton go to the moon. The obvious implication is that extraterrestrial lifeforms were involved but we'll never know unless the Americans release the information they have."

The documents Dr. Kang quoted from are stamped "top secret" and dated Aug. 3, 1969, which means they were written just two weeks after astronauts Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the moon--in boots, not barefoot--on July 20, 1969. Large portions of the text have been redacted in black ink. It's clear that U.S experts agreed extraterrestrials had something to do with the bare footprints and skeleton on the moon.

Repeated attempts to get officials at any level of government to address Dr. Kang's report were unsuccessful. Explained a Washington source: "Nobody's going to say anything until President Bush gives the go-ahead. This isn't any ordinary cover-up. It makesWatergate look like a Sunday School picnic. It's that damn big."

Jack Note:  As wonderful as the story is, it has unfortunately been traced back to the July 15, 1997 issue of  none other than the Weekly World News...

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POTUS 38: Pres. Gerald R. Ford - Pardon Me, Mister President!

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President Gerald R. Ford was another short-time President, serving the remainder of President Nixon's term when he was run from office in disgrace. With the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew, he was vaulted from Congress into the Vice-presidency, and soon, the Oval Office itself. In his short time as President, he was the victim of two assassination attempts. There were probably many reasons why he lost the '76 election to POTUS 39, James Earl Carter; chief among them was the divisive pardon he granted to the former president for all crimes and misdemeanors committed while he was in office. President Ford, at ninety years old, is now the oldest surviving President.
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poster for Del's Latest Movie

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Letter from President George W. Bush

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