a gentleman farmer

What Happens In Financial Collapse?

2010-08-15T01:29:00.000-04:00

In my early years, I remember my parents and their friends talking about the Depression and hoping that "one day" it would end.
I was born 3 years before the USA got into World War II. The Depression was still oppressing a large number of Americans, all across the country.
FDR has been widely credited with ending the Depression, when in fact, he made it both worse and longer than it would have been had he not tampered with the economy through his "New Deal" policies.
I try to watch and read news and commentary from a number of sources and with varying political points of view. I've been concerned for several months that a few leading economists -- among them Arthur Laffer and Stuart Varney -- have been forecasting economic "collapse" for the US economy. Their consensus is that economic affairs will come down around our years no later than mid-2011!
That's SOON!!
It's been the conservative news media that have been warning of this for months. Now I see that the rest of the media -- not wishing to be perceived as ignorant of financial matters -- are now beginning to point with alarm at future events. In case you can't link to the link at the beginning of this post, I strongly recommend you read this article: http://www.benzinga.com/10/08/426718/will-quantitative-easing-by-the-federal-reserve-unleash-economic-hell
While I'm not exactly sure what "economic hell" is, I know it is not good!
You and I are riding this train, and they won't let us anywhere near the throttle in the engine room, so, what do we need to do in order to ride out this coming "economic hell".
Many financial advisors recommend converting any cash assets you have into precious metal coins -- gold or silver US coins. That sounds good to me, but having some experience in those markets, I recommend Silver Eagles from the US Mint. Those are worth somewhere near $20 today, and will have some value as a medium of exchange even when the paper dollars in your pocket are worthless.

Gold coins are OK, I guess, if you have a large amount of cash to stash, but because of their relative value, they might be too valuable to worth very much as a medium of exchange in crisis except for "big ticket" items, not for every day commerce. If you do decide to convert to gold and/or silver coins, I strongly recommend that you invest only in bullion coins from the US Mint. They are of reliable and accurate weight and content. With coins from any other source, you cannot be sure of either.
To prepare for such dire events, there are more urgent needs needing your attention than currency. After all, our parents and grandparents made it through the Depression with very little or no cash at all!
. . . more later. Your comments, ideas, and suggestions are welcome.

It IS rocket science . . .

2010-07-29T16:02:00.000-04:00

Operation Paperclip.

Does that sound clandestine? How about Project Bumper?

As World War II was in its final throes, a race developed which was to foreshadow world events for another 40 years of "Cold War". The falling 3rd Reich was leaving bits and pieces, some of them quite valuable, for the victors to take as spoils of war.

The Russians and Americans raced to see who could claim the prizes at Peenemünde.

As the German nation was disintegrating, and cloaked by its death spasms, many of the men and women who reported for work daily at Peenemünde, scanned the skies and nearby terrain for the troops approaching from both sides.

When it was clear to them that the Russians may arrive first, a number of the brilliant "whiz kids" of early rocket science gathered up their drawings and designs from this top-secret missile test and development facility, and made a near-frenzied dash toward the American forces.

Operation Paperclip was the hush-hush intelligence-directed project to grab up Dr. Kurt Debus and his team of pioneers and bring them safely to the United States. In a carefully, though hurriedly, devised plan, intelligence officers worked to find ways around an edict by President Harry Truman, crafting false identities for more than a hundred scientists, technicians, and managers from the secret base and other places vital to the German rocket program. Under these assumed identities, the team, headed by the brilliant young techno-scientific mind of Werner von Braun, was spirited to places in the United States where they could continue their work, experimentation with rockets, and research.

Along with the team, a number of captured German V-2 rockets, whose predecessors had terrorized Europe, were brought to the States. For more than two years, the team continued working on the projects they had begun in another land, but with some added features and equipment from the American work.

Project Bumper became the code-name for experimentation which mounted an American-made WAC Corporal missile atop the German-made V-2, as an experimental second stage. During 1948 and 1949, from the White Sands Proving Grounds, the team launched at least six "mated" vehicles in test flights, with varying degrees of success.

The team packed up their gear and moved to a triangular spit of land on the central east coast of Florida, and in 1950, on July 24th, completed the first rocket launch over the Joint Long Range Proving Ground, from Cape Canaveral.

A few days ago, we passed the milestone -- 60 years since that first historic launch from Cape Canaveral. Dr. Kurt Debus later became the first Director of the space program facilities based at The Cape - as it came to be known -- and Dr. von Braun became the "father" of the U.S. program to fly men to the moon and back.

Debus, von Braun, Rocco Petrone, and their teams are gone from among us now, but the benefits of their brilliance and dedication are still blessing the world.

A hearty salute to the men and women who pioneered the world's exploration of earth and space with rocket science, and to their successors who have carried on their dangerous, but exciting work.

This old Gentleman Farmer is humbled and honored to have "walked among them", and values his charter membership in the "Aerospace, Missile, and Range Pioneers", begun at Cape Canaveral during the 1960s, to honor those men and women who gave us their dreams.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_H._Debus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_Project
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Von_Braun

the Blessings of Liberty . . .

2010-07-27T22:59:00.000-04:00

The United STATES of America . . .

Why does every generation need reminding that ours is a "federation of free and independent states"?

A group of independent states got together (convened) and in agreement, they created a federation among themselves. They agreed to be bound together and protected by this federation, but only in common needs they could not handle as well individually.

In the vision granted by wisdom from above, people in the states knew they needed to band together for some purposes, making themselves stronger together than they could be acting separately, even in concert.
Any inter-state agreements may have been good, but they recognized their need for a "better" union for common needs and goals. So, in order to form a more perfect union of their efforts they agreed to federate themselves.
Of course, to "form a more perfect union" was not the end result for which they met, but for the blessings that such a federating could bring them all: establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility (peace in their homelands), providing a greater ability to defend themselves than their individual mililtias could provide, and unarguably the most important objective, to "secure the Blessings of Liberty" for themselves and their children.
For these purposes, our Fathers created, ordained, and established the "Constitution for the United STATES of America."

Then, they wrote the design of our federation of states, describing the three branches our government would take, the way the branches would "check and balance" each other, and the areas in which they were authorized to act on behalf of the member States.
To assure that future generations would never have reason to get a wrong idea that the federated government was "in charge" of everything pertaining to this land, in their wisdom, they appended a list of 10 "amendments" to this new Constitution. In them they restated "God-given" rights and freedoms which could not be taken away from the people by this federation nor by any State.
The last of these ten is the most telling: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Representatives of the convened States wanted all future generations to know that this indeed is a federation, empowered by the states themselves and intending to delegate to the more perfect union ONLY certain specific authority the branches needed to carry out the purposes of establishing justice, insuring domestic peace, providing a defense against common enemies, and securing the marvelous blessings of LIBERTY for all of us who have so far succeeded them.

We need to burn these ideas into our minds, and to the minds of our children and their children, else, continually, they will be taken from us.

http://constitutionus.com/

I Pledge . . .

2010-07-26T16:41:00.000-04:00

I pledge . . .
   . . . allegiance
   . . . to the flag of the United States of America
   . . . and to the Republic for which it stands
   . . . . one nation under God
   . . . with liberty and justice for all!!

Welcome Back !

2010-07-23T12:06:00.000-04:00

I was shocked!
Just looked at the date of the gentlemanfarmer's last post. My, how time flies! (I heard that somewhere before!)
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, I promise to post more frequently.

There are campaigns going on all over our Country for who will SERVE us for the next two, four, or six years in various posts -- ranging from the White House to the Outhouse.
Of course, President B.H. Obama's progressive circus has a few more days in town, but much of everything else is up for grabs these days. As I read the newspapers, blogs, emails, and TEA-leaves, I get a sense of "throw the rascals out", ranging from sea-to-shining-sea, and border-to-porous-border.
Our tendency to "throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater" sadly, is going to waste a few good people, because the country is restless and there's a serious uprising from the right. Invigorated by TEAParty rallies and seemingly led by no one yet, the sense of the movement is to take out anyone who appears to be part of the political "system" that has let us down, and led us down, and to replace them with citizen-representatives.
I see new faces and names on campaign posters. Business people who've never been involved are running for office. Doctors. Ranchers. Others. That's very encouraging.
Our founders intended that we have "citizen representation" from the beginning. It's time we returned to that with surveyors, farmers, architects and others, leaving their fields, instruments, and businesses to serve a term or two, then go home.
Allowing our representatives to become "entrenched" and by refusing to challenge the endowed power of incumbents, had gotten us into this mess.

It IS time again to throw the TEA into the harbor and the incumbents into the streets!!

Long live Liberty!!

" . . . a giant leap for mankind . . . ?

2009-07-21T11:36:00.003-04:00

Forty years ago this past day (July 16), I actually started my day on the evening before. I don't remember whether or not I slept at all that night.

The early part of the day on the 16th, I was in the UPI Radio studio trailer at the Press site on Merritt Island, FL -- a huge government reservation then known as The Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Our "soundproofed" studio was in the back part of the trailer with the UPI Wire Service writers in the front. We sat immediately south of the towering VAB - The Saturn Vehicle Assembly Building and about 3.5 miles west of the launch pad. That was considered to be a "safe distance" in case the Saturn V rocket exploded on or slightly above the launch pad.

With microphones in front of me, at my side were my "sidekick", Les Roberson, who would describe the liftoff of Apollo 11 from outside the studio where he could get an unobstructed view. Later in our coverage, Les would be our "color commentator". On the other side was our producer / director, Scott Peters. Les was local to Brevard County, Florida. Scott was the Radio News Director for UPI Radio and UPI Audio Services. During the earlier Project Gemini, in Houston, at the Manned Spaceflight Center was Col. John "Shorty" Powers, our "technical expert". However, for the moon flights, I handled both anchorman and "expert" responsibilities.

We began our coverage for this historic flight for the first manned landing on the moon from the studio at the KSC Press Site. As soon as the Apollo spacecraft had left earth orbit and was "safely" on its way toward the moon, Scott jumped on a flight for Houston and I stayed in Florida. A couple of days later, history would be made . . . by the NASA team and three brave space explorers, and by the UPI team.

Leading up to this flight, UPI had sent a photographer to meet me, and we had travelled all over the area, taking publicity photos of me, looking up at the sky, standing in front of the Saturn V rocket on its launch pad, seated in the studio at our microphones . . . all kinds of locales. The pictures were then used by the UPI Sales Department to "sell" our coverage of the American Space Program to radio stations all over the world. By the time we opened our mics for the first words of this broadcast, we were speaking via the largest radio network ever put together for any event in history.

Radio stations from all over the States and several "foreign" countries had been contacting me for weeks to record "promos" for them, promoting our space coverage on their local stations. It was a wonderful and rewarding chore. I got to speak with news reporters and production managers all over the world. What an experience!

I knew our coverage would be making history, but at launch time, I hadn't even the faintest notion that I would be a part of that history, not just a reporting observer.

As soon as Scott Peters arrived in our studio at the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston and could take over our broadcasts, with our engineer, we left our studio near the Apollo launch pad and moved to our regular studio at Cocoa Beach. This studio had some advantages for us, not the least of which were several UPI newswire teletype machines.

With these machines, clacking away in the next room from the broadcast studio, we could keep track of anything else that just might be going on in the world at the same time as Apollo 11's landmark flight. And some things WERE going on.

Most of the day after launch was relatively quiet, with our making an "updater" broadcast twice each hour and a full report at the top of the hour for all of our affiliates around the world. Even though this trip was unique for what it signified, if one could ever say that flights to the moon had become routine, this part of the Apollo mission had been done before. Several flights had already been made to the vicinity of the moon. Though this was to become the first "lander", the transition from earth to moon had been practiced enough that the entire team (and the news corps) had become relatively familiar with the trip and what to expect.

Little did we realize at the time, that events were unfolding elsewhere in the country that would take much of the attention away from this historic event and carve out another niche in history, for an unexpected tragedy.

On Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, five young men were partying with several "boiler-room girls" who had been working on Bobby Kennedy's Presidential campaign. Who could have known that the next day, young Edward (Ted) Kennedy would take one of those girls in his Oldsmobile 88, and make a wrong turn off the Chappaquiddick bridge, right into eight feet of cold, dark water, and history.

For the rest of this historic flight, the Apollo 11 astronauts would share headlines with the story of Kennedy and the tragic drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne.

10:15 p.m., Monday July 20, 2009

Over the years since President Kennedy's announcement that we would land Americans on the moon before the end of the decade of the 60s, anticipation had been building. More excitement built with each flight. The "race" with the Soviet Union was in the minds of all who followed each new advancement by our space program and our astronauts.

As exciting as the first trip for a moon landing was, during the approximately 72 hour transit time from earth orbit to lunar orbit and landing, for most of the three days there were some deadly dull moments.

All that dullness faded quickly as Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin separated their moon landing craft -- Eagle -- from the main capsule. Mike Collins stayed with the ship that would bring them home, and did not get to leave his footprints in the lunar dust on this first mission.

Everyone who was near a TV was glued to the "smeary" black-and-white pictures being beamed back from the moon.

I was in our darkened little studio, watching a NASA monitor, listening to the "air-to-ground" at this same time that evening, and doing my very best to describe the awesomely technical things which were happening so they could be understood by "the milkman in Milwaukee" who could not see them. Our audio engineer Bill Wilson was in the other half of the studio and found it hard to keep his eyes on the network audio controls, because he, too, was watching the monitor.

As the Eagle descended, I kept one eye on the Apollo 11 flight plan, and listened as they read out the "numbers" describing the historic descent, altitude, speed, fuel remaining.

"Fuel remaining" began to be more and more critical as they blasted the rockets engines, bearing them down gently toward the dusty surface. Flight controllers in Houston at the Manned Spaceflight Center were even more on the edge of their seats than I. When the spacecraft finally did touch and the engines were shut down, there were 10 seconds of fuel left. With the "coolness" of an experienced test pilot, Neil Armstrong had used all his fuel efficiently, moving laterally as he descended, searching for a smooth place to land. He did not want to land with one of the Eagle's legs in a crater. A tipped over spacecraft would have meant that it would become their tomb instead of their lifeboat which would return them triumphantly to earth. No one knew how deeply the lander's feet would sink into the lunar dust either. There were estimates, of course, but no one yet knew how deep the dust went, nor whether it would even support a man, not to mention their much heavier spacecraft.

We all breathed again when Neil Armstrong said, "Houston, the Eagle has landed!"

And now 40 years ago tonight, the two of them would be leaving the relative safety of Eagle to step onto the surface, fulfilling an age-old dream of mankind.

What he said, as he took the last big step off the end of the ladder was, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." The voice-activated communications gear turned off their transmitters when there was no sound being made, then turned it on again when an astronaut started to speak. It took sometimes a full syllable for the transmitter to become completely activated. Armstrong had paused just long enough after "step for . . ." for the transmitter to turn off. When he said, "a man"...the "a" was lost from the transmission while the mic "keyed up" again.

Because of that fluke, the first words forever remembered as coming from the moon's surface were "That's one small step for . . . man . . . one giant leap for mankind."

Regardless, there is little doubt that the speech he had rehearsed was true. One of the largest of technological "giant steps" mankind has ever taken.

So many myths have grown up around that moon landing . . . I'd like to address them all, but probably have not yet even HEARD them all.

One of my friends and colleagues during those years covering the space program was Jay Barbree, NBC Radio News correspondent for more than 50 years now. I suggest you read his column from today on MSNBC's website. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31965108/ns/technology_and_science-space/ Jay deals with all of the myths I've heard, and much better than I.

My own personal little piece of history?

I heard today that a record 40 million viewers were watching the event unfold on television, spread across all the networks. Those who could not watch were listening to radios wherever they could find them.

I mentioned earlier that UPI Radio had put together the largest radio network in history for this signal event. Not only was it the largest around the world, but across the United States as well. At the time, Mutual Radio Network had the largest number of station affiliates of the major networks, followed by ABC Radio Network.
For this event, UPI Radio surpassed even Mutual by about 100 station affiliates.

The next day following the first moon walk, our producer Scott Peters told me that a Nielson survey indicated that 30 million people had been listening to our broadcast in the United States alone.

Thirty million!!

I almost wet my pants!

Thirty million was a new record for listening to one radio broadcast up to that time. I don't know whether, 40 years later, that record still stands. But, it was my own personal little piece of history. I've been blessed to have been a part of it.

Of course, the astronauts returned safely with several pieces of the most valuable real estate ever discovered. They brought back about 60 pounds of moon rocks and dust to be studied by scientists ever since. The space program and brief lunar explorations are still paying dividends 40 years later.

That about wraps it up from here for now. This is Art Thompson, UPI Radio, at the Kennedy Space Center.

Talk, Talk, Talk!!

2009-03-30T12:26:00.004-04:00

Wow!

Finally have my blog going at voiceover-casting.com.

FYI, it's called "Vox Populi" - the people's voice.

Well, at least, that's the blog's name for now. I'm not quite "the people's voice" . . . yet. Still have a way to go, but at least, we're working on it. Hope to have some samples up before too many moons. Still on an agent-quest. Looking for a hardy agent willing to take on this genuine geezer!

So, if you know one, or even if you know someone who might know an agent who handles or specializes in voice talents . . . please let me know right away!

Remember the "Six Degrees of Separation" theory? Chances are, you know someone who knows someone who knows . . . .

You get the idea!

Thanks.

Plowshares Into Bullets

2009-03-23T14:25:00.007-04:00

Gang,

When a friend emailed this to me, I felt compelled to post it here. It's from the blog: The Shootist. The material is copyrighted, of course. I've placed complete attribution at the end of this informative (and frightening!) piece. Do not ever doubt the power of people, banding together to change things! And never doubt the psychological power of the thought of an armed citizenry.

~ agentlemanfarmer

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Plowshares Beaten Back into Bullets

SHOCK and AWE...The tentacles of the internet reached out and pulled the Brotherhood of the Gun together, launching a massive strike.An electronic impulse that may have mirrored a sunspot hit Washington, DC as gun people everywhere called and e-mailed their congressional delegations.

Larry Haynie is owner of Georgia Arms (http://www.georgia-arms.com/) and one of the largest manufacturers of centerfire pistol and rifle ammunition in the country, producing 1.2 million rounds of reloaded .223 ammunition a month, mainly from expended military cases.

"We're right up there behind Hornady," he told me. Haynie first alerted us to the move by the Department of Defense to stop selling whole fired brass cases to the remanufacturing market, requiring instead that all expended brass be "mutilated" ("Shredded..." as Haynie put it) before it was sold as brass scrap.

On Sunday, March 15, he was interviewed by Tom Gresham on his nationally syndicated show "Gun Talk" (http://www.guntalk.com/) where he informed us he had two months worth of whole cases left, and then he would have to lay off half of his 60-person work force. We discussed it on this blog, and alerted other gun bloggers who joined in warning the firearms community that here was a serious threat against their sport--one that could push the cost of ammunition well beyond the means of the average shooter.

The shooters responded--in droves. E-mails were sent. Letters were written that will probably continue arriving for days, and outrage was expressed. Not only did the gun folks contact their congressmen, they contacted DOD too...even to verify the action had been taken, and Government Liquidators, LLC, the corporation that auctions government surplus, had been told to cease the auctions of whole expended brass.

Something worked.

On Tuesday, March 17, Georgia Arms posted this message on their website:

"Dear Loyal Customers,

Thanks to your voice, DOD has rescinded the order to mutilate all spent cases as of 4:30 pm on 3/17/09. We appreciate the time and effort that you expended, together we all made a difference. We will be posting the email we received from DOD as well as any additional information within the next 12-16 hours. Thanks so much and lets get to work!!!
Georgia Arms."

Perhaps the most poignant message received of the many dozens that were posted here was from the wife of a long time employee of Georgia Arms:

"My husband has worked for Ga Arms for about 20 years...We have two kids in college..My husband is 50 years old, I am sitting here trying to come up with ways to reduce our spending and thinking about who would hire a 50 year old man! Please pray for our family! I guess we could sell off all his guns!!"

Thanks to you out there, this lady and many other long-time employees of Georgia Arms and all the other remanufacturers of expended military brass will now continue to be gainfully employed--a part of a productive American work force rather than forced onto the government dole.

There are too many people to thank for helping this occur--everyone pulled together.

But of special note are Larry Haynie, and Tom Gresham, who sent a link to his radio program: http://www.guntalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=443576

Caleb of Call Me Ahab alerted us to corroboration by www.AR15.com which has been on this since the beginning, and special thanks to the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (http://www.jpfo.org/), who also broke the news early on with a letter from Gary Marbut,the president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. He described what was going down, and asked everyone to write Senators Max Baucus and John Tester to demand the DOD rescind this outrageous action against the shooting community--which they did.

David Codrea of The War On Guns leaped into the fray early on with his highly read Gun Rights Examiner columns http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Military-ammunition-policy-rescinded

But mainly, it was YOU--the Brotherhood of the Gun--who responded so quickly with cogent, lucid complaints to your political representatives--putting them on notice we would not take such attacks against our sport, avocation, and livelihoods lying down.

It was a quick, massive response. The comments on this blog alone were outraged and rancorous, but never vile--and they worked.You are the Minutemen of today.

I am proud of you all.

- - - - - - - - -

Methinks we'll add a link from here, just so you'll know how to find The Shootist in the future. Right ON, Gordon!!!

This was taken from the blog: The Shootist.

The author's profile follows: GORDON
Author: "THE GREAT NEW ORLEANS GUN GRAB" (with Todd Masson), an expose' of the anarchy and outrageous behavior of civil authorities who confiscated thousands of guns from law-abiding citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Also the author of "THE QUEST AND THE QUARRY"--a southern novel of the hunt.

Firearms columnist for LOUISIANA, NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA, and MISSISSIPPI SPORTSMAN magazines.

Founding Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Training Officer and Spokesperson for the Lunatic Fringe.

Unapologetic Gun Nut (with apologies to David E. Petzal.) gordonhutchinson.com

A Bit of History, A Bit of Peace

2009-03-22T02:59:00.006-04:00

On the morning of September 19, 1863, Confederate soldiers encamped near Crawfish Springs, drank and took on a supply of water for themselves, and watered their horses - all from the main spring.

The following day, September 20th, following the bloodiest battle of the War Between The States, soldiers of the Union army took over the springs, and there watered themselves and their horses.

"Earlier, during the War of 1812, five hundred Cherokee soldiers from the area fought with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the Creek Indians, who were aligned with England. Their valor helped assure victory for the Americans. The Cherokee nation was divided into districts and courts with Crawfish Springs the county seat of one of the districts. " (from Wikipedia)

Two nights ago, my wife and I sat in the living room of some dear friends, Ted and Myra, on the north bank of Crawfish Springs, overlooking a vastly different scene. No horses. No soldiers. No battlefield campfires. No sounds of musket nor cannon. No moans of dying nor wounded men or their animals. No blood running in the water. Instead, the quiet serenity was punctured only by the bubbling, splashing sounds of waters gushing up from somewhere deep underground.

We had spent the evening in prayer, bible study, and meditation with our friends, who now live in a building, constructed beside the springs only a few more than 40 years following the terrible carnage.

As we sat in the quiet of the evening, my mind went back over the history of this spot, made sacred by the blood of men fighting and dying for their causes. Here, we sat, not in conflict but in peace, surrounded not by the sounds of battle and dying men, but instead, bathed in the love of our Lord.

What a contrast.

Men die. Peace is purchased by their blood. We get to enjoy the benefits and beauty of their sacrifices.

Same is true of our spiritual lives. Jesus died. A violent and cruel death. Our peace was purchased by his blood. We get to enjoy the benefits, blessings, and beauty of his sacrifice for us.

-0-

Picture respectfully "borrowed" from: http://beejw.blogspot.com/2007/04/photo-of-crawfish-springs-chickamauga.html

FaceBook Welcomes "A Gentleman Farmer"

2009-03-13T12:36:00.005-04:00

WoW!

If you're "Friend" on FaceBook, you can now link your favorite correspondent (the farmer, of course!) to your profile page.

You can also become a "follower". We'd kinda like that. Perhaps you'd like it, too.

We renew our promise to offer "a potpourri of thoughts, experiences, meanderings, musings, and occasionally brilliant ideas of a true, trusted, and certifiably genuine geezer".

Perhaps something usefull, perhaps occasionally, something you'll want to share with others.

If you haven't joined FaceBook yet, it's probably just a matter of time, anyway, so why not visit?

www.FaceBook.com

Get PAID for talking . . . I should be rich instead of so good looking!!

2009-03-11T02:19:00.004-04:00

In one of my former lives . . . I actually got PAID to talk!

Can you imagine?

I know some people, who, if paid by the word spoken would be among the World's Wealthiest! Right up there with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim Helú, and other members of their exclusive fraternity.

For a number of years, I was a news reporter, most of that time, stationed at Cape Canaveral, then the Kennedy Space Center, covering the US Manned Space Program. I didn't get paid by the word, of course, but reporting was never like a "real" job. It was like getting paid for my favorite hobby.

For several years, I got away from working with my voice, and worked more with my sparkling personality, marketing telecommunications for the Bell System to major businesses in southeast Florida.

Now semi-retired, the current financial situation causes me to reach again back into the bottom of our bag of tricks and begin searching for an intrepid and brave agent, willing to represent me and my limited voice "talents".

My search has just begun. I'll try to keep you posted on any results -- good or bad.

In the meantime, do you have any audio books, tv narration, internet training, presentations, anything at all requiring a professional voicing? I may actually be "Your Guy"!

In the next day or three, I'll try to post a link to a new website, where you can also hear samples of our "voice wares".

Stay tuned!

O, Scary

2008-11-10T21:31:00.002-05:00

During the recently concluded Presidential campaigns, I was asked several times my opinion of the two candidates.

With my Republican history, most questioners likely knew which way I "leaned" already, but I may have surprised some by responding: "Frankly, Obama SCARES me!"

He did during the campaign, in spite of the lack of "vetting" by the mainstream news media. I don't know what most voters do, but one thing I do is actually to listen when candidates speak.

I know. I know. What a concept!!

It is sometimes surprising just how much candidates reveal of their views and personal guiding values when they make speeches. Even more revelations usually slip out during one-on-one interviews.

Perhaps others did too, but early on, I perceived that Barak Hussein Obama is at least a socialist -- perhaps even a communist.

Witness only two events, though there are numerous others.

In his conversation with "Joe, The Plumber", Obama expressed his desire to "redistribute wealth" - a scary socialistic idea. Actually the very words come from Karl Marx himself. Taking the hard-earned income of those who work to support themselves and their families, or even to build some weath of their own, and arbitrarily re-distrubute it to others who've not earned it, is communistic socialism . . . actually . . . the epitome of their economic views.

The other happened this week, less than one full week since the election. Obama, in a very "underreported" event, apparently directly contacted the Russian Prime Minister, Putin. We don't know the entire conversation, of course, and may never be privy to all of it, but the part reported today is really scary to me, and IMO SHOULD scare the pants off every security conscious American.

Obama promised the Russian leader that he would not deploy the defensive missile shield in eastern Europe, planned and negotiated by President George Bush. The placement of missiles in eastern Europe is designed to protect former member nations of the Soviet Union, as well as NATO nations from potential attacks from rogue nations - including Russia - though Russia has been left unstated.

Putin has opposed this anti-missile deployment as an "agression" against the Russians, which it clearly is not!

Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt, Obama is misguided in making this promise, for more than one reason.

Foremost is that those nations will now be unprotected from Russian agression, practically inviting Putin to roll his tanks back into Georgia, and the other nations who left the Soviet Union, killing thousands of innocents. Russia has been looking with greedy eyes on those oil-rich countries ever since they lost control of them when the Iron Curtain came down on their final act.

Almost as important is the fact that Obama has begun performing "presidential acts" before he actually is in office.

This is an affront to the Office of President, and unprecedented in my memory. Often, incoming Presidents-elect express their views or things that they plan to do when they've actually assumed office, but never do I recall their taking action as though they were already President.

This is the height of arrogance and ill manners. It borders on treason, undermining years of careful planning and delicate negotiations by President Bush and his foreign ministers.

Sadly, innocent people will pay the price. Perhaps even for generations to come.

...passing of a friend; passing of an era...

2008-07-07T10:37:00.003-04:00

During my formative years, Murphy Martin had a major influence on me. I looked up to him as I might have to an older brother. Murphy was a distant cousin. We both were born in Groveton, a small, relatively insignificant saw-mill town in east Texas.

For a few years, my daddy (Alton Thompson) sang in a couple of gospel quartets on the local radio stations in Lufkin. If the buildings still stand, you're likely to find my "nose-print" permanently embedded in the multi-panel studio sound-proof glass. Much of that "nose-time" was watching Murphy Martin at the controls of radio station KTRE in Lufkin -- learning, soaking up every nuance, every motion, every word.

A while later, in junior high school, my friend Larry Bills somehow finagled a weekly radio program, oriented toward our school mates, and invited me to be his assistant host. Larry moved on, and I kept the program going in various guises through most of my junior year. When I began to "solo", Murphy Martin was the one who took me into the Control Room, sat me in the "Air Chair" and taught me how to operate all the mysterious controls and spin records. Gave me some pointers on reading the news.

I did not realize at the time what profound effects this kind, simple instruction would have on the rest of my life.

Fast forward to about 10 years later. Murphy is assigned by WFAA-TV in Dallas, to covering the Billy Sol Estes scandals during the Lyndon Johnson administration. I was then in the news department of WFTV, Channel 9 in Orlando. Before long, Murphy had been moved by ABC to New York, where he became the iconic "anchor" of their prime-time evening news. "Murphy Martin and The News" became one of the highest rated network news shows of the mid-sixties era.

During his stint, he arranged for me to meet Tom O'Brien, at the time, News Director of ABC Radio News, and a friend of Murphy's.

O'Brien subsequently invited me to New York, where he offered me my "dream job", Science Editor / Reporter for ABC radio.

For a number of reasons, I never took the job, but both started and reached the pinnacle of my profession through the care and tutelage of Murphy Martin.

And now.... he is gone. If there is such a position in the life to come, he's reporting on current events from his "Front Row Seat".

Farewell, old friend. See you again!! That's my time. Thank you so much for yours.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/070408dnmetmurphymartin.22bf4ac6.html

. . . my brother was an only child . . .

2008-06-23T01:29:00.004-04:00

"My brother was an only child."
Mon, 01/21/2008 - 02:05

My brother WAS an only child!

You may not know it, but I was born at a very young age. Wasn't even a year old, as a matter of fact. But, that didn't discourage my parents. They kept me anyway.

Alton Thompson and Annie Swor grew up in Trinity County, Texas, in the first half of the 20th century and like many others of their time, were victims of The Great Depression. Alton was born and grew up in Sylvester, just outside the logging town of Groveton. Annie was born and grew up just a few miles away in Apple Springs. Good thing it was a ride on horseback of a reasonable distance, or I may never have seen the light of day.

Dad's parents were Cleona Fidelia (Mochman) Thompson Harrott. Very German in her early years, but greatly Americanized and "Texanized" by the time I knew her. I never knew my grandfather, Herbert Thompson. He died during the year of the great flu epidemic, in 1917. He had "Bright's Disease", so I've never known which claimed him - the flu or the disease. He left my grandmother and four relatively young children, Butler, Madge, Alton, and Wilhelmina to operate a farm and feed and clothe themselves . . . alone. I don't recall their relative ages . . . I'll try to find and post that later, but Alton was 4 and the younger Wilhelmina was only 2 when he died.

A few years later, Grandma married Joseph Harrott, her brother-in-law. Jodie, he liked to be called, was a brother of ______ Harrott, husband of her sister, Ocie. So, Grandma and Jodie are who I remember as my paternal grandparents. Perhaps later, I'll have time for a few stories about them.

Mother's parents were Richard Henry Wright Swor and Mary Elizabeth (Smith) Swor. Farmers.

Richard - all his children AND grandchildren called him "Papa" - had migrated from Swortown, near Paris, TN, when his parents moved to Texas.

Mary Elizabeth - we called her "Grandma", but her friends called her "Lizzie" - had been orphaned when she was quite small. She had been adopted by a couple named "Smith" in the southern Georgia town of Cairo. When she was 7, the family migrated from Georgia to East Texas by covered wagon.

I don't recall much about mother and daddy courting. I guess I was much too young to have noticed. :) But, I do recall them telling about daddy riding his horse from Sylvester to Apple Springs to see her. They liked to go to dances, and from what their friends have told me, they were very good at the Texas 2-Step. No question about whether or not they enjoyed it. They really did.

In 1935, they had a son, Jerry Alton, who never lived more than possibly a moment or two. Apparently his was a very difficult delivery in which the doctor needed to use forceps to assist in birthing him. Forceps can be very hard on a new-born's delicate little body. In the delivery, tragically, his neck was broken, along with mother's heart. Jerry Alton is buried in the Old Sumpter Cemetery, just outside Groveton, TX, where he was born.

Three years later, on May 5, 1938, their next son was born, also in Groveton. That was I.

In 1941, my first sister, Elizabeth Ann joined me. Then in the icy winter of 1944, Charles Henry became a part of our growing family. In 1946 and 1948, both on March 13, Martha Lynn and Melba Jane made our famly complete.

About my brother being an only child? I just borrowed that from Mark Twain to get your attention.

. . . death to the infidel . . . !

2008-06-18T20:57:00.011-04:00

Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC. I thought you should and would want to know this.

We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah. I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted, 'Allah Akba r!' My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town.

At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word 'infidel.' I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of 13, I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered.

By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends -- killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York, or Britons in London. We were Arab Christians living in Lebanon. As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking themselves, 'Why do they hate us?' The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to ask the question. Simply put, they hate us because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word: 'infidels.'

Under the banner of Islam 'la, ilaha illa Allah, muhammad rasoulu Allah,' (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel , massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then. Now infidels worldwide are paying the price for indifference and shortsightedness. Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.

America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates. Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed printed by a Danish newspaper. From burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. News pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared 'Intifada' on the West.

America and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don't take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world. This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death.

A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature life in society is ever capable of giving them. The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people.

The radical Islamist deeds have been as vile as their words. Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam.

America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must engage our terrorist enemies, that we must address their grievances. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many, not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy.

Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are. Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization. If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion.

For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America's learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect.

Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East television and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com. More bio info at:

http://www.intelligencesummit.org/speakers/BrigitteGabriel.php
Complete article is at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1 9016 http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/gabreil.asp

(You can also find her on U-Tube)

. . . the day the Constitution died . . .

2008-06-13T02:06:00.008-04:00

I am appalled at Thursday's decision, handed down by the US Supreme Court.

Never, in my wildest imagination, would I ever have even guessed that even our most liberal Justices could rule the way they did about the circumstances and RIGHTS of battlefield "detainees" held in an isolated military compound at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba.

Voting for today's ruling were the liberal Justices: Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Dissenting were the more conservative four: Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

You can be assured that if elected, Senator Barak Obama will appoint even more liberal justices (if they can be found) than Kennedy, Stevens, Breyer, Souter, and Ginsburg.

However, a President John McCain has already promised more like Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia.

Spread the word among your friends and acquaintances.

In effect, this ruling gives men captured on the battlefield, trying desperately to kill our military men and women in any horrible way they can devise . . . not only our enemies, but not citizens of this country . . . the same rights granted only to citizens of the USA by our Constitution and laws.

You can read the full text here: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=06-1195

Writing the dissenting point of view, in part, Justice Scalia said:

"America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. See National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 60-61, 70, 190 (2004). On September 11, 2001, the enemy brought the battle to American soil, killing 2,749 at the Twin Towers in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., and 40 in Pennsylvania. See id., at 552, n. 9. It has threatened further attacks against our homeland; one need only walk about buttressed and barricaded Washington, or board a plane anywhere in the country, to know that the threat is a serious one. Our Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week, 13 of our countrymen in arms were killed.

"The game of bait-and-switch that today's opinion plays upon the Nation's Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."

Justice Scalia concluded with the ominous warning . . . " The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent."

With great sadness . . . I agree! :(

. . . about oil prices . . .

2008-06-13T01:28:00.004-04:00

You can do something about oil prices now . . . !!

I don't know whether the commentators and pundits have been reading our blog lately or not, but suddenly they've begun talking about market speculators being responsible for the unconscionable run-up of world oil prices.

Those who speculate only for the potential profit are responsible. Check our suggestion we posted a few days ago about limiting the oil markets only to those with the potential of taking delivery of what they purchase options for.

Yes, I know it will take more than your Congressperson passing laws re-regulating and setting new rules for oil futures trading . . . it will take some international diplomatic negotiations to stop the practice in other countries, as well.

But, Congress is a start. If they will, they can initiate change. Now is the time. Contact your Congressional Representative now, and make the suggestion, or simply refer them to our blog for information. Be sure to put your own thoughts in your own words in your email to your Representative. Here's a link to a site that will link you to him or her.

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

Please, do it now, while its fresh in your mind . . . unless, of course, you really enjoy paying $4.00+ at the gas pump!

. . . a brief response to "K's" comment on oil . . .

2008-06-05T23:18:00.002-04:00

Thank you, K, for bringing this up. I'm not familiar with "B5 oil", and would like you to post some more information about it here.

I didn't get into it, but I'm also a proponent of exploring for more domestic oil reservoirs and for developing what we already know about, including ANWR. Perhaps we should open up that discussion soon here, too.

. . . I've solved the oil "crisis"

2008-06-04T20:09:00.006-04:00

Who'd'a thunk that if you read here long enough, we'll likely come up with the solution to every problem . . . we have one for oil and gasoline . . . just keep reading .....

The current oil prices continue creeping upward. Someone compared it to placing a frog into a "pond-temperature" pan of water, placing it on the stove, then putting heat under the pan.

Poor frog is fat, dumb, and happily swimming around in the pan and does not notice that the temperature is slowly increasing. Before the poor frog realizes his predicament and reacts properly, his "goose is cooked"! (I just wondered: Do frogs even have geese?) : )

Kinda what happened with the world oil market . . . gradual increases . . . ever so slowly . . . causing a few cents increase in the price we were paying at the pump for gasoline. Then, suddenly, like the frog in the pan, we discover the water's really gettin' hot!!

Suddenly, it costs $100 to fill the tank in the big gas-guzzling SUV, and the price is still rising!!

You know it's gotten really serious when General Motors announces the closing of their plants which manufacture the SUV, and hint that the Hummer brand might be for sale.(http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080603/FREE/57736413/1023/contact)

Having given this more than 15 minutes thought, I have solved the "oil crisis" problem. (Congress, you paying attention yet?)

The price per barrel of oil has been steadily increasing in the Commodities Market. The free market!!

That means that, if I have even an inexpensive account somewhere, I can buy options - for only a few cents on the dollar - to purchase whole tankers of oil at a time.

Now the trick is, I don't actually have a place to park that tanker of oil yet, so I purchase a future contract, to be delivered - let's say - in December 2008. While that actually wouldn't give me enough time to build a large enough port for parking the tanker, it also wouldn't be enough time to build a pipeline to a refinery to process my tanker of oil into gasoline, oil, diesel, kerosene, etc., either.

So, I really have no intention of taking delivery of 100,000 Dead Weight Tons of oil.

All I really want (and in fact, I'm betting on it!) is for the price of oil to move up only a few cents per barrel before I have to take delivery. Between now and December, upward price movement of such a few cents for each barrel of oil in that 100,000 tons means perhaps several 10s of thousands of dollars in profit for me.
Not only that, I did not have to build nor own a port, a pipeline, refinery, nor service station. All I owned was for a few weeks I had the right to purchase a tanker of oil at the price at which we had contracted.

That's how I would make my profit: by speculating that the price of oil would go up during the time I owned the option, and that I could sell my option - at a profit - to some other speculator, or to an oil company with the capacity to process it.

The solution: Require that anyone trading in the oil futures market have the capacity of taking delivery of everything for which the speculator has purchased options.

That would keep only the oil "pipeline" people (pun was intended!) people in the market and keep the pure speculators out. At some point quite soon after such a regulation, the price of oil would reach some equilibrium controlled only by supply and demand.

It is cruel and obscene what speculators have done to the price of oil, which has had trickle-down (or perhaps "trickle-up") effects on almost everything else which we purchase. It will take something drastic to turn this around. I think only Congress can do it. Then, the State Department would need to negotiate with other countries to pass similar laws.

If you also believe this idea would work, please contact your Congressman (or Congresswoman) and US Senator and ask them to do it . . . and soon!!

"To blog is inhuman"

2008-06-03T20:40:00.008-04:00

"To blog is inhuman; to email, sublime."
~ art thompson

". . . 'til the fat lady sings!"

2008-06-03T19:53:00.004-04:00

"It ain't over, 'til the fat lady sings," or, as Yogi Berra is credited with saying, "It ain't over 'til its over!"

The long hot summer of the Democrats's discontent stretched over two long hot summers and an equally llooonngg winter. Now, seems as if Barak Obama has made history by becoming the first black to carry the banner toward the US Presidency for one of the two major political parties instead of Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to be nominated by either party.

Who'd'a thunk it?

Was it only a year ago that Obama "didn't have a chance", and the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, had "a lock on the nomination" and was moving toward her own coronation as the Democrat standard-bearer on the evening of "Super Tuesday". And, how ironic that this time in 2007, John McCain, also, "did not have a chance."

Needless to say, Clinton's "Super Tuesday Strategy" failed.

Now, it will be Obama, challenging John McCain to be next White House resident. Here, now, on this date, according to many of the "legitimate" polls, it appears to be a toss-up. But, as the old expression, "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip" pictures, many things can happen before the November decision.

Things change.

Often more quickly than we are ready for changes.

This time next summer, either John McCain or Barak Obama will be settling in to his role as President of the USA. Leading our country just slightly toward right-center, or toward the extreme left, toward Socialism.

"Hello world!"

2008-06-01T13:21:00.000-04:00

Those simple words, computer-generated onto an attached printer, in one fell swoop, both heralded and ushered in a revolution in computing.

On a noisy printer in Bell Labs, two young men had labored for days -- and NIGHTS, if my own experience taught me anything -- to create and write a computer program that, at once, would fit into the limited computing space of their early Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-7 (DEC PDP-7) and predict movement of stars and planets. Testing the draft-version of their new programming concept, the two young men had it print out only the words: Hello World!

They didn't have the big, heavy, IBM 360 mainframe, so prevalent in big business in those days. Their department's tiny budget allowed only for the "mini"-computer. "Mini" did not mean "small"!

"Mini" meant only "not huge"!

A mini-computer lived in a frame, which typically stretched from floor to ceiling - roughly 7 feet - and really thrived in an air-conditioned, climate-controlled room.

If their DEC computer had a hard disk drive, it would have been housed in a washing-machine-sized cabinet, and held several stacked metal platters. A typical one of that era might have held 8 megabytes on 8 platters, stood a little over waist-high, and been operated from a keyboard - printer terminal. Instructions were typewritten on the keyboard and the computed results printed out on the same machine. Video Display Terminals were uncommon.

But, in this environment, an elegant, simple, powerful programming language was born. They called it UNIX.

For all posterity, their names are recorded in the annals of computing history: Ken Thompson, and Dennis Ritchie.

more information . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix