Mountain Blogger has returned!

Had to take a week off for a family reunion on the mountain. Think it was actually successful, so perhaps we might even try this again. No family members killed each other, so should be considered booming success! LOL

Sports

Ready for the Olympics and the World's best women's softball pitcher? The men will be tuning in to watch Jenny Finch pitch, that's for sure. :) Pitching some 70 mph from a shorter distance than the regular 60' of baseball, her fastball is equivalent to a 92 mph fastball in baseball. She has already struck out 4 major leaguers. During her college career she won 60 consecutive games. To read more about this amazing young woman, check out her bio here . You can watch her and Team USA today at 1 p.m Eastern on ESPN or August 1st at 1 p.m on ESPN. I'm getting psyched for the Olympics!


Lance Armstrong

Watched Lance crush the competition on the next to last day in the Tour de France during a blistering time trial. He smoked the 2nd place guy by a full minute - the guy is damn near inhuman!



Politics

Heading for a house party on the night of the Democrat's convention to hear John Kerry give his speech (better be a good one! - the speech that is.... Of course, would be nice if there were some good munchies as well. ). Should be interesting to meet some like-minded folks. The Dems are enthusiastic, but will that be enough?... If you want to bone up on some of the issues and Kerry's take on them, go to his web site and read Kerry-Edwards Policy Documents . You may not agree with every single one of them, but remember, you are not the only fish in the pond and sometimes things have to be done that may be for the greater good of all, even if in that particular instance, that doesn't mean you.

There are a lot of volunteer opportunities at the Kerry site, some easy to do and right from your computer. So take a few minutes and make sure all your email friends will be reminded to get to the polls on 11/2 and vote. Check the Kerry site to sign up as a volunteer- takes only seconds.

Theresa Heinz Kerry
From Arianna's column , "when it comes to spicing up the political dessert tray, Teresa Heinz Kerry is one of the most flavorful and compelling public figures to hit the national stage in decades." On the media and their attacks on Theresa, "You gotta love this about our media mavens: They are constantly bemoaning the lack of forthrightness in our public figures — the vast majority of whom wouldn’t know a straight answer if it bit them in the butt. But when they are finally presented with someone who doesn’t (pardon the expression) beat around the bush, they start sharpening the long knives.

They’re like a bunch of little kids who have gotten so used to being fed nothing but vanilla ice cream for dessert that a serving of Rocky Road with some sprinkles on top leaves them sputtering and crying, “Yuck!”"

And the real problem? "Thirty-eight million women didn’t vote in 2000, many of them because they were so disgusted with our inauthentic politics-as-usual. If even a small percentage of them turn out this November, they could very well end up deciding the election and the direction of the country.

So I propose that we turn on its ear the traditional good-old-boy political litmus test — which candidate would you rather have a beer with? Instead, let’s ask the women of America: which candidate’s wife would you rather have a cup of coffee with?"

Interactive Election Guide
For a constantly updated election Guide and some neat graphics, head to this page .

Quote of the Day
"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind."
Aristotle

Word of the Day
jeremiad \jair-uh-MY-uhd\, noun:
A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; also, a dolorous or angry tirade. Johnson's jeremiad against what he sees as American imperialism and militarism exhaustively catalogs decades of U.S. military misdeeds ....... Economics ministers in general were taken aback when a recent World Bank report -- after a year of jeremiads -- suggested the crisis was being exaggerated