We caught The Charlie Daniels Band at our local fair tonight. I had seen him multiple times over the years, though the last was at Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World in about 1995.

I was expecting some stale repackaged playing.


I was wrong.

He played a great solo naming and describing representative fictitious fighting men and women in situations needing our prayer. I was sure I would be able to find the lyrics when I got home.

I was wrong.


He brought the "liberal" San Francisco area crowd to it's feet often with his patriotic renditions and God "namedropping."


And he carries some fine musicians.

Technology

Google Confirms Launch of FTC Antitrust Probe

Published June 24, 2011 | Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators have begun a formal antitrust investigation into Google's business practices.

In a blog post Friday, the Internet search giant said it received notification from the Federal Trade Commission of the review on Thursday.

Google said "it's still unclear exactly what the FTC's concerns are."

But the inquiry is expected to focus in large part on whether Google abuses its dominance of Internet search to extend its influence into other lucrative online markets, such as mapping, comparison shopping and travel. Rivals complain that Google, which handles two out of every three Internet searches in the U.S., manipulates its results to steer users to its own sites and services and bury links to competitors.

The European Commission and the Texas attorney general have already opened investigations into whether Google uses its enormous clout as a major gateway to the Internet to stifle competition online. The Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, too, is examining whether Google gives its own services favorable treatment in search results.

Google maintains that most of the accusations of anticompetitive behavior come not from users, who like its services, but from competitors that are not pleased with their search rankings. "Since the beginning, we have been guided by the idea that, if we focus on the user, all else will follow," the company said in its blog post.

"We make hundreds of changes to our algorithms every year to improve your search experience," it added. "Not every website can come out at the top of the page, or even appear on the first page of our search results."

In midday trading Friday, Google's stock fell $6.66 or 1.4 percent, to $473.56.

Cali:

Not saying there isn't a small percentage of smart people in San Fran. Just that by & large your city is f'n nuts. There really isn't any other way to put it. Of course you are one of the good ones so present company is of course exculded.

I just heard a couple days ago that your city is trying to ban gold fish. At first listen I, as well as Dennis Miller, figured they was talking about the snack cracker. Hell, they've already started banning chocolate milk from schools and snacks & sodas from parts of the city so just figured the snack cracker was next. But no, they mean the pets. Poor li'l critters deserve to be free they say.

Well, they're allowing thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants and prisoners to go free. Guess the fish was next on the list.

F'n nuts I say. But I suppose you smoke enough legal drugs anything can seem like a good idea.

I do want to visit San Fran one of these days though. It has a great history. (but key word is history)

I want to see that fort where the vigilantes used to watch over the town. (I think it may be just an old building with sand bags around it but still thought the story was cool when I heard it)

Funny when you see how the city treats it's convicts now compared to how they used to.

HB, i just have the iPhone at the gym now. I'll write about my fishy thoughts when I get nsck from tomight's game...

Hillbilly, I'm not gonna spend time crafting this but just a few thoughts about what the rest of those of our political ilk outside of San Francisco usually seem to think about San Francisco.

Like you I think, I was raised in a solid Democrat family and thought I was a Democrat until I started studying politics...and paying taxes.

The major planks that drove me to becoming a Republican were "government governs best when it governs closest to the people," and "government governs best when it governs least."

On the first plank, San Francisco gets a solid grade of "A." In all of my fun times and work in The City of San Francisco I've never met a person who lamented living there. The City attracts like minded....for better or worse....and open minded people.....for better or worse. I love San Francisco.

On the 2nd plank on governing least, San Francisco doesn't get an "A." The local elected officials do seem to put up and debate items like the dubious goldfish that obviously are not significantly moving the city and it's residents forward. I'll just offer that I personally played "sandbox politics" in high school and college and trivial items like that were regular faire. I personally ran for college office on a 20 point campaign plank that included one that would "motivate the administration to replace the black and white TV class instruction with color TV lectures." (I won, and did, for what it's worth) Many San Francisco elected officials are not that far removed mentally from the sand box politics of their youth.


On another goldfish note, my mostly Republican home town instituted a goldfish ban of sorts around 1970. The Park & Recreation department had about a dozen city parks under their watch, most with "wading pools." Each summer there would be a "goldfish hunt" at each park pool with goldfish being dumped into the wading pool for excited kids to scoop up with a net if they could, and then put in a tie baggie to maybe get home alive. After several years the city decided the event was not only inhumane...it was perhaps unsanitary.

Switching....

We of the "conservative" or "libertarian" or "Republican" or "tea party" thinking are pretty much all in sync that churches and communities and families should take care of their own.

Not the government.

I'll offer that San Francisco is a prime example of where that really takes place in many facets and examples.

The gay community is very closely aligned with many non government funded community centers and churches that give freely and often, with barely a question.

Some people within their rights diss San Francisco with the rep on same sex marriage tolerance, but fact is not many here consider it a major social or political problem. Myself included. I understand the Bible and related concerns, but I really think and believe one of the apostles misconstrued something. I played sports and went to school in a city of 60,000 and remember some guys from elementary school years who we commented "ran like a girl" or "threw like a girl." With the passage of time I think they about all ended up being gay. Likewise, but to a lesser extent girls who were bruisers on the playground and in sports they could play. I don't think any of them "chose" to be gay, and I don't believe that God makes any mistakes.


Just an aside, I thought about your "whacky San Franciscan" post as I came up out of the BART station late this afternoon to walk about a mile to AT&T Park. I had forgotten this is "Pride" weekend in San Francisco....until I hit Market Street and saw two guys in hot pink wigs and mini skirts trying to get people to sign some petition.

Likewise to the gays in The City, the Asian population certainly takes care of it's own. Especially Chinese. Each generation offers a hand up to new arrivals with lots of family and non-government funded support. And all are focused on getting the new arrivals educated, working, speaking English and out becoming a working tax payer.

The Hispanic community, too. Of course not all are here legally, but that's a problem we can blame on national and several state elected officials zigzagging across parties and political and practical ideologies. Keep in mind that in nearly forever conservative Texas ranchers early on decades ago turned a blind eye as to whether or not there good and worthy hired help were here legally. Hispanics in San Francisco have great church organization, and definitely have "family values."

There's a whole segment of San Francisco that gets little notice outside of the The City. There are scores of thousands of mostly white guys and girls under 40 from around the country who choose to live and work in The City because they like being there. I watch NFL football with many of them on autumn Sundays in San Francisco sports bars and I assure none give a rats arse about goldfish, and many voted for McCain.

I have a bizness meetin' in San Jose in the morning and can't spend more time thinking or proofing this, but did want to dash out my goldfish controversy inspired rough thoughts....

2011 Will Be Heaven for Cleveland Indians Fans. Just to get this remotely back to sports.

If anyone is watching the NASCAR race on TNT today, that is the track within 45 minutes of our home. It's one of only two "road courses" in NASCAR ("road course" means they make a few right turns, too). That's the track I had a few "hot laps" around for giving blood on some special machine there a few years ago.

The "pro driver" who stayed around through the rain to make sure I got my laps is currently running in the Top 10 in today's race. A.J. Allmendinger. He had yet to go NASCAR. It was amazing what he could make a stock Camry do.

It's tough to tell on TV but I believe it's an 8 to 10 story elevation change around that track. He had that Camry going downhill at 140 mph just seemingly just jump and turn right dropping about 60 mph.

Super kid that day.

The only reason I'm not at the race today is because The Tribe is in town and I have a ticket.

Scissors, paper, stone.

Indiana Basketball Standout Survives 2nd Plane Crash

Published June 27, 2011 | Associated Press

Detroit – A standout Indiana high school basketball player with the promise of playing at the University of Michigan is fighting for his life after surviving the second plane crash of his young life.

Austin Hatch, 16, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was in critical condition Saturday in a northern Michigan hospital after the Friday evening crash that killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim. Austin and his pilot father had survived a 2003 crash that killed Austin's mother and two siblings.

"He never talked about (the previous crash) one time," said Dan Kline, the basketball coach at Canterbury School in Fort Wayne, Ind. "I'm sure he carried it inside."

Kline told The Associated Press that the next 24 to 48 hours are going to be critical, and described Austin as an A student who is physically and mentally strong -- someone "who can handle things."

"He's a very mature young man," he said. "You'd never know he was 16 years old."

The teen was "the apple of his dad's eye," and Stephen Hatch took great delight and pride in his son's athletic accomplishments, Dr. G. David Bojrab, a colleague and close friend of Austin's father, told The Associated Press.

Austin, a junior at Canterbury, committed earlier this month to play basketball at Michigan, where his father and mother went to school.

He told the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a story published last week that he talked to Michigan coach John Beilein by phone and accepted a full-ride scholarship. It was the first day that NCAA coaches could call recruits for the 2013 class, the newspaper said.

"It was a very special moment for me," Hatch told the newspaper. "There was no reason to wait. There's nothing I don't like about their program, and I couldn't turn it down."

Kline, who spoke with Michigan coaches before the offer, told the newspaper it was Austin's "dream" to play for Michigan.

"They didn't come right out and say it, but they told me he was a top priority in the state of Indiana," he said. "They kept dropping hints."

Kline said Saturday the team is stunned.

"Right now, we're just trying to collect our thoughts and stick together," he said. "They're a close-knit group."

Bojrab said the Hatches were flying to their summer home on Walloon Lake in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula, where Stephen Hatch and his brothers all owned property, when his single-engine Beechcraft A36 Bonanza flew into a garage near the Charlevoix Municipal Airport. It was the same home Stephen Hatch and the family were returning from nearly eight years ago when they crashed in Indiana.

"He was such a strong proponent of flying and teaching people to fly. ... I think he felt compelled to continue his passion," said Bojrab, a partner with Hatch in Pain Management Associates in Fort Wayne.

"He felt compelled to show people that accidents do happen. He didn't want people to look in the other direction."

A 2005 federal report on the September 2003 crash found inaccurate preflight planning resulted in the plane not having enough fuel. The National Transportation Safety Board determined a utility pole the airplane hit during its forced landing, a low ceiling and dark night also contributed to the crash.

Bojrab said his friend disputed the report's findings, believing equipment failure caused the crash.

"When he crashed, it was an inferno, which makes you wonder how he could have been out of gas," Bojrab said.

Hatch saved Austin, but his other children -- Lindsay, 11, and Ian, 5 -- died along with his wife, Julie, 38.

"His wife and two children were in flames and he was never able to reach them," Bojrab said.

"Steve reached over to his son who was sitting in front with him and tossed him out the window to save his life."

Beilein said in a statement that the university was saddened to hear about the tragedy affecting the Hatches. "Austin needs as much support right now as possible and I know he will be in the thoughts and prayers of the Michigan family during this difficult time," he said.

Canterbury School said in a statement Saturday to "keep Austin and his family in your thoughts and prayers."

Bojrab said Stephen Hatch had planned to go to Spain to celebrate his parents' 50th wedding anniversary with the rest of his family, but canceled the trip to spend time with Austin and his adult stepchildren.

"Steve was a very big family man," Bojrab said.

Another of his passions was Smith Field Airport, a small, historic airport near Fort Wayne. Bojrab said Hatch led a campaign several years ago to save it and bought the Smith Field Service Center and its flight school.

"He saved the property from being developed commercially," Bojrab said, adding that Hatch was instrumental in getting it on the National Register of Historic Places.

NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said investigators were on the scene Saturday and would be examining the aircraft, interviewing witnesses and requesting air traffic control communications and radar data. He expected a preliminary report within 10 days and a final report determining a cause within 18 months.

Thank you to my 8th grade science teacher. Mr. Fred Brigeman.

He etched in my mind that baking soda was the recipe for stomping out a grease fire.

I wanted seared Ahi Tuna and wasabi after the gym tonight. I usually grab the canola oil or Smart Balance to put in the pan, but tonight went for some vineyard olive oil we picked up at a wine tasting several weeks back.

I put the olive oil in the pan this evening and covered with a glass lid over medium high heat. I was multi-tasking and figured I'd be back in plenty of time to toss the first side of the tuna in.

I was wrong. The oil was smoldering and blackened under the glass lid. I took the pan off the burner and removed the lid and Whoosh!. A ball of intense fire the size of a beach ball searching for something to ignite.

My wife ran to dial 911 or look for a blanket, and I remember we usually keep a box of baking soda in the refrigerator for odor reduction of whatever.

The flames were close to dish towels and cabinets as I ripped open the cover and threw onto the fire. And it immediately went kaput.

It took an hour for the dog to come back inside after the smoke alarms quit going off.

Detroit – A standout Indiana high school basketball player with the promise of playing at the University of Michigan is fighting for his life after surviving the second plane crash of his young life.

Austin Hatch, 16, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was in critical condition Saturday in a northern Michigan hospital after the Friday evening crash that killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim. Austin and his pilot father had survived a 2003 crash that killed Austin's mother and two siblings.


There are few people who are survivors in two plane crashes.

There is a NASCAR owner who has done so.

Comedian Christopher Titus has a line I am reminded of in his "Norman Rockwell is Bleeding" super routine.

"My mother was in prison for murdering her last husband......I say last husband because once you've killed one you seldom get a chance to get another. They take away your marriage card"

@wingoz RT @johnreporters: Credit to Thurl Bailey on death or Lorenzo Charles. "Jimmy V now has someone to hug" nothing could be more heartfelt. ... 50 minutes ago

It is June 28 and unfrickingbelievably it is pouring down rain here. I think this is a record for the latest "rain season" we have had in this part of California.

Five inches of snow is projected a couple hours east of us for today and tonight.

It is June 28th, 2011 and my Dad turned 85 yrs old today. Believe it or not he still snow skis! My Mom turned 85 on June 13th and has Alzheimer's. My Dad is totally capable of caring for her from home. Corey and I go whenever we can to help out. My parents are the best and I love the more than anything!!!

Happy b-day to your dad, DONNA! You are truly lucky to still have both your parents with you.