Barack Obama Awarded 10th Degree Black Belt!

Our American President has been awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for bringing hope to the whole world and for something to do with nuclear arms non-proliferation. I think this is great! It really bolsters the credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize committee members and puts Barack Obama right up there with Teddy Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Ralph Bunche, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Kissinger and Mother Teresa and shuts the mouth of all those who claim he hasn’t changed a thing in the last 10 months – plus, he got the gold in record book time, unlike the other historically accomplished folks I just mentioned.

He was in office 12 full days before he was nominated and we all remember how much he did the 11 days before that. My pointed head is still spinning.

It only took Mother Teresa all her life to get it and President Obama did it (snapping fingers) like that. Bully for him. This sets a real precedent too. Maybe a blogger can win it. I think I’ll change the name of this Blog to something like “I promise the moon and stars to promote world peace, at high altitudes and give everyone something cool”. That might do it. Of course, I won’t have to actually come across with anything concrete after I’m nominated and that’s the real beauty of it.

I’ll have to get a teleprompter too I guess, and maybe a couple of aggressive speechwriters with carnival hawking experience (it’s not easy to fool everyone, but I just have to fool roughly 50%). These guys will have to be good and if I can drag in an acting coach too, that'll top off my chances of winning. Then I could feign shock and awe when the awards start coming in.

Now, what I’m hoping to see next for our President is some more choice awards to beef up his resume. The President of the World Taekwondo Federation should ask the Kukkiwon to award Mr. Obama a 10th degree black belt for instance. What? They only go up to 9th degree? Not a problem, just create one. Our President deserves the highest-ranking black belt in the world. The world owes it to him and he would look awesome giving speeches and whatnot.

There has got to be an Academy Award in this thing somewhere, I can smell it. Let’s see…I got it - a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, or maybe Best Inspiring Performance! That second one might have to be invented, but those Academy folks did it for Al Gore and they sure as heck-fire can do it again. You can see that I’m all about change, can’t you?

What other awards are out there that people usually win because they work hard all their lives and deserve that we can give our President? He has after all, brought hope to people like Kenyans and stuff. It was looking like there were bunches of people in Afghanistan that were singing his laurels, but for some reason they are waffling, so no awards are coming from under that rock that I can see.

Personally, I think President Obama should win the Heisman Trophy – that’s a given I know, but not everyone agrees (they probably listen to Glenn Beck’s blather all the time).

There’s the Stanley Cup that’s up for grabs and let’s not shy away from a couple of Olympic Gold medals – say maybe 9 or 10 in the same sport? I hadn’t thought about the Kentucky Derby until just now, but it’s not out of reach and then, there is a Superbowl ring that would look real nice.

One way or the other, I’m happy for the man. Alfred Nobel would be proud.

Pay the same - Get less Baytown Sun? - Part 2

Back on September 22nd, I posted about how the management of the Baytown Sun decided to render the thrown subscription from 7 days to 5, but at the same price?  Their logic was they would up the amount of free info on their website and us subscribers would pick up the cost.  Well, here is my solution so we can be honorable on both ends of the hand shake.

Baytown Photographers Form a New Club

Monday night, October 5th, 2009, about thirty photographers gathered for the first meeting of the newly formed Baytown Photo Club to begin what is hoped by it’s organizer, Jane Lee, to be a long term sharing of photographic art and knowledge.

Jane Lee is a photo journalist and I’ve known of and read her well-written articles for quite some time, so when she asked me to join the club, I came along willingly.  I was pleased to see so many folks come out to learn and share, especially Nicki Evans, one of the areas well-published professional photographers.

I gave my brother TJ Bustem a call and he, being an avid photographer told me this was something he has wanted and needed to do for a long time, so he joined me.  We are both self-taught and the chance to learn from a pro is welcomed.

My fascination with photography began in 1968 when I met a fellow high school student who owned a premium range finder 35mm camera and educated me on the intricacies of shooting “photos”, as opposed to taking “pics”.

You see, photographers take photos, images or photographs and everyone else takes snapshots or pics.  Photographers do take snapshots, but when they are addressing their work, it is always images or photographs.

Anyway, it wasn’t until 1972 that I was able to afford (read serious sacrifice) my first real camera.  It was a revolutionary single lens reflex (SLR), aperture-preferred automatic 35mm – the Yashica Electro-AX.

What made this camera revolutionary was instead of all the dials being manually operated, this model would adjust the shutter speed while I, looking through the lens, adjusted the aperture (or depth of field).  It was fast – real fast with an almost unknown shutter speed of 1000th of a second, having a titanium shutter.  Many years later I bought a Nikon FE2, which came very close to approximating this early 70’s Electro-Ax, but with fewer features.

Now back in these days Kodachrome 25 (then ASA, but now ISO) slide film ruled the roost, but a person had to have excellent lighting to use it, so many of us used either Kodachrome or Ectachrome 64 and even the very fast Ectachrome 160.  Paul Simon sings about Kodachrome 25, even though he doesn’t say ASA-25, but 25 was king until June of this year when Kodak stopped its 70+ year run. Adios my old friend.

I went to the Air Force Base library with my new camera and read every page twice of the then cutting edge Time-Life photography series of something like 14 books.  I subscribed to a couple of photography magazines and with my usual abusive sense that I couldn’t learn fast enough, I inhaled the photographic art studies.

A few of the thousand photographs I took are shown here, while serving in Thailand:

Each time I let the shutter fall, it cost me about .25 and that was in 1972-74.  That was a tremendous amount of money and explains why composition, lighting and depth of field were so critical for film photographers, as opposed to digital.  To this day, I will stop, look and shoot once and walk on.

Time came and went, with various interruptions in my photo hobby, but over the last ten years, I’ve pursued it with a passion, especially when digital cameras became inexpensive enough to fire away with total abandon.  Now, it’s important to note that a good expensive camera does not a good photographer make. Trash in, trash out.  Do your homework folks.

However, the opposite is true.  Take a cheaper camera and a good photographer can make some very good quality photographs.  Some of the greatest photos of old were taken with simple (by today’s standards) range-finder cameras and old diehards wouldn’t use anything else, citing SLR camera buffs as amateurs.  This has shifted from range-finder to film SLR folks looking down their noses at DSLR people.

I’m a digital photographer who shoots primarily for the web, but I shoot in high-resolution and reduce the overall size to publish.  I use 3 cameras and they are all compact and I usually have one in my pocket at all times.  At the end of this article, I’ll list them.

Photographers love cameras and buy the best they can afford.  Some digital DSLR camera BODIES (read no lens) cost close to $3000.  Throw in a couple of lenses and you could buy a very good used car with that much money.  However, the modern point and shoot range finder cameras with 4 megapixel capability will serve almost everyone else’s needs and can be bought for a little over a hundred bucks.

Well, to bring this to a conclusion, the new club will meet the first Monday of each month at 110 W. Texas Avenue, at the Baytown Art League building at 6:30pm.  Bring a dollar for the kitty and join us.  Most of all bring a hunger to learn and if you have something to share, it will be welcome too.

Canon SD 950 IS, Canon 990 IS, Sanyo Xacti CG9

Should I be Scared too, Eddie?

Is our government driving this great country into the ditch with total abandon? Are we on a runaway train ride into destruction? Is our country is such steep decline that we will never recover our former position as a world leader of freedom? Is there a global conspiracy to combine the whole world under one ironclad fist? Should I buy up food and guns and bury them in my boat shed?


I remember years ago when I point-blank asked (in response to the many warnings) the question of "What can we do then?" and the reply from the conspiracy theorists was "There's really nothing we can do. It's too big. It’s a runaway ride into slavery."

So, since there was nothing I could do, I decided to roll on.

I continue to vote for the lesser of the 2 evils. I work the system the best I can for my family. I save what I can and I enjoy life to the best of my ability. I pursue hobbies. I try to influence my local government to improve our collective lot. I attempt through my Blog to influence those around me who actually read what I write with whatever is on my mind at the time and whatever facts are at my fingertips and this changes, so my opinion changes.

I try not to worry, but I find myself worrying.

Are we supposed to all move out into the woods, store up food and ammo and become anarchists? What, I once again ask (since so many claim to have their ear so close to the pulse of this coming dilemma) do you all experts suggest each of us do to stop it?

Can you give us clear advice? What exactly have you all personally done to change the future? It seems so many are alarmed, but no one knows how to reverse it.

Anyone can stand on a stump and yell out warnings (such as "WE NEED CHANGE!" - Barack Obama), but unless they can deliver a clear-cut message that actually answers the myriad of problems, they are wasting their breath and my time. Personally I hope Mr. Obama suddenly jerks from sleep and decides to drop all agendas except the one that will benefit all Americans, my family included.

Many mainstream American voters are sick and tired of our government in general, regardless of which party is boasting about having the answer. I can’t recall so many people being angry over all government as we are seeing right now. Usually they are mad about one party or the other, but the TEA parties are just mad at poor government period.

Ron Paul doesn’t have a chance either and I think he is true to what I believe - less government is better. I don’t even want to see the government in my business unless there is a disaster and then I want to see my government step in and help the people. I do not want to see my Government borrow 2.5 million dollars from Chinese banks and give it to Libyan charities ran by Dictator Qadaffi’s children, and thank God the State Department was denied this preposterous recommendation by our Congress.

Here in Texas folks are storing up ammunition. Some think it will be taxed it through the roof, while others think they will need it in the coming revolutionary war. I figure if it gets down to an internal war (read: war against Globalism and a One-World Government), there will be plenty of guns and ammo laying on the ground - plus, I have always believed if a person stored up enough food, etc. to hold them over for a year, it would all be taken away violently by the scavenging masses anyway, so why bother?

I wish I knew exactly what to do, but I don't, so I will continue to read, watch, eat, work and write - just like before.

High-speed hummingbirds feeding in Baytown, Texas

An actual recording of gentle hummingbirds in flight at my feeder in Baytown, Texas. They are so polite and giving of birds and always waiting their turn at the feeder. Please enjoy.

Baytown's Anti-Pedestrian McKinney Road

Today, I wrote a letter to the City of Baytown's government asking them to look into a street improvement that many of us feel is long overdue.  I am asking citizens to do the same if you agree.

Lynn Caskey is the District 5 Councilman  lynn.caskey@baytown.org.  Write him asap.  Include your own feedback also.

Here is the letter and the map:

View Larger Map

I suggest we work to get culverts and sidewalks installed on McKinney Road between SH-146 and Massey Tompkins.  This is a high foot and car traffic section with numerous trailer parks and no shoulder.  There are also apartments and a convenience store on both ends, which precipitates foot traffic by children at great risk to their safety.

This proposed improvement has become almost an obsession with me after being ran in the ditch by a car when riding my there.  The new surface is great, but this town's roads are very hard on people walking or riding a bicycle.  It is actually against the law to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, but when there is no shoulder AND a sidewalk, it is the logical choice.

Pay the same - Get less Baytown Sun?

I am a subscriber of the Baytown Sun. Without my permission they decided to reduce delivery of their publication from 7 days a week to 5. So, in order to keep our contract viable, I am going to reduce my payment accordingly. 

It appears the logic behind this decision was reached so that those who pay for a subscription can underwrite those who read on the web only.

So, once again, those of us who pay for a subscription, will subsidize those who free-load the newspaper by viewing the online edition only.  I smell a rat and a form of Socialism in this decision and this change is basically less for more.

From the Publisher: Changes in The Sun

Cliff Clements

The Baytown Sun

Published September 6, 2009
Effective Saturday, Sept. 12, you will notice major changes to The Baytown Sun.

The masthead will be changed to The Sun and will feature the Baytown Oak Tree. A new typeface will be used for the body copy and for the headlines. This redesign of The Sun is to better organize the newspaper and to meet the needs of our changing readers.

The major change will be in publication days. On this date, The Sun will drop its Monday edition and combine the Saturday and Sunday edition into a Weekend package. The new Weekend package will include an updated TV Guide, detailed sports information, complete calendar listings for the upcoming week, lottery numbers, and enhanced feature stories and will be delivered by noon on Saturday. As a reader, you will be getting two days of information in one edition.

Why make this change? The strategy of the newspaper industry is changing very rapidly. The transition of newspaper readers from print to online is happening much faster than we anticipated. Today, The Sun has over 8,000 registered subscribers to the Web site. With this transition, The Sun’s Web site will be utilized for more late breaking news, more short stories with reference back to the print product and continuous updates of breaking news and sporting events. Whereas, the print product will feature more in depth feature and enterprise stories as well as more coverage of upcoming events.

The Sun will continue to staff the newsroom seven days a week for breaking news on Saturday and Sunday that will be posted to the Web site immediately. The daily Web site will also be updated throughout the week.

We are not reducing the amount of news coverage that we supply to the Baytown area, but we are changing the delivery method of that information.

The Sun has long been a part of the lives of the citizens of Baytown for many years and we plan to continue that relationship in a revised format. We always welcome your suggestions for improving The Sun.

Cliff Clements is editor and publisher of The Baytown Sun. His email address is cliff.clements(at)baytownsun.com

Questions raised about the Health Care Bill

“On Main Streets across Texas, the quote of the year belongs to Rep. John Conyers: "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"

Feeling swindled from the $787 billion stimulus bill, wary constituents are picking up the slack and reading the health care legislation themselves. And they want to make sure their elected representatives know what the fine print actually says”.

The following question is one that I personally asked and Sen. Cornyn (R) Texas also poses it:

--"Minimum benefit packages" that are mandated as a part of every insurance plan sound great, but since there's no such thing as a free lunch, don't mandated benefits actually reduce choices and drive up costs for all patients?

It's my opinion that a one-for-all base health program would be the equivalent of no insurance, or at the very best an entry-level policy that would be next to nothing. In other words, the passing of this current health care bill would boost the lower 15% and lower the quality of care of the other 85%, negating care for all.

I want to share some photos

I've been out and about lately and been more concerned with pursuing life and happiness than worrying about TEA parties, health care programs and the general miserable state of our government and economy - so I want to share some photographs instead of getting worked up over some lesser issue. So, without further ado...

The photos above are of a metallic wood borer beetle and the next one is a wharf roach (thank you Mary Wicksten - Biology professor at Texas A&M University).
The photo above is of a real sweaty Baytown Bert hiking the Goose Creek Trail in Baytown, Texas.

These last 2 photos above are of delicious grilled food in my backyard here in Baytown, Texas - Stuffed w/cream cheese, peppered thick slice bacon-wrapped jalapenos, premium all beef hotdogs and DJ's jalapeno boudain! Yum!

The My Lai 4 Massacre in Vietnam - Pinkville

Lt. William Calley finally apologized for the killing of "22 civilians" at the hamlet known as My Lai 4, better known to the soldiers who were there, as Pinkville.

I've followed this incident over the years and the truth of the matter is that Calley and others murdered over 500 civilians (according to most informed sources) and thoroughly and cold-bloodedly wiped out, tortured and raped the village to total destruction. 26 soldiers out of all of the unit were tried in court, but only Calley was convicted and then secretly released. Most all of the soldiers did not take part in the killing, but Calley was the ring leader and his Capt. (Medina) if I remember right was totally complaisant. He was witnessed shooting civilians with a hand gun out of the helicopter.

After these soldiers herded civilians into a ditch, they threw grenades and shot all of the people, then sat down and ate lunch. I put Calley almost in the same league as Jane Fonda for deplorable behavior. Makes me sick to my stomach. This is just one of the reasons my Dad told me to never do anything "over there" that you will regret for the rest of your life and the same advice I gave my son.

This is an incident every American should never forget.

It’s Been a Hot One!

“It’s hotter than fusion” was a favored saying of my late father-in-law, Willard Reneau and this year he would have said it often. I don’t have research material handy on this year’s summer temperatures, but it seems like it has been hotter than what has been normal. Normal. What does that even mean in Baytown and the Texas Gulf Coast?

One of my brothers, TJ Bustem, has finally had enough and has openly declared that he “ain’t doing anything more outside” until this dadgum heat falls off to something bearable. It’s been hot and humid and since it hasn’t been raining like normal, where is all this humidity coming from anyway? I reckon it’s the Gulf. TJ Bustem is one of those rare people who ride a bike a hundred miles and is a ride Marshal for the MS-150 and when he says it’s too hot to ride, it’s too hot.

I have a secret source that tells me TJ is still riding, but he’s mad because it’s so hot. I know it’s slowed me down on hiking, biking and trekking. I love being outside and I love the sunshine and believe it or not, I love the hot temperatures, but enough already!

My Shih Tzu doggie doesn’t like it either and my yard looks like a lawn in Mogadishu. Well, like I think a lawn over in Somalia would look like - minus the burned out cars and tires. My water bill has almost hit two hundred bucks as we struggle to keep our landscaping alive and these nightly faux rainstorms are getting on my nerves also. Who do I talk to to get some rain over in Chaparral Village? I have some new trees to grow, thanks to Hurricane Ike and this smattering of rain drops ain’t gonna get it.

After years and years of sacrifice, we put in a beautiful pool last year and thanks to the radiant heat from our nearest star, it has become a giant sauna. I’m thinking of throwing a hundred and forty four eggs in there and boil them cheaply for next Easter. It’s so hot I’m putting an ice cube under each arm before I jump in and replacing them before they melt (in less than five minutes).

For the first summer I can remember, I am switching my car A/C to recirculation, rather than bringing in fresh air. I always bring in fresh air to keep from having a build-up of mold spores and that dreaded smell of mildew, but even though my A/C works like a charm, it is simply not enough to keep the heat down before I get in from work.

Every fiber in me wants to shift blame to that no-good Al Gore for inventing Global Warming, but I am not a vindictive person by nature, so I refuse to give in to the urge to blame that dirt bag, or speak or write anything negative about the lout.

I’m half expecting to have a visitation by an alien predator this summer. They only show up when it’s really hot and this summer easily qualifies.

Oh! We had a Bigfoot scare at the Plant this past week! Talk about a bunch of people in an uproar. I even let out a wee, but quite masculine, scream, as embarrassing it is to admit. Turned out it was a false alarm. One of our “Winnie Boys” had taken off his shirt. My Liberty buddy wanted to throw a saddle on him.

The good news is we are now in Zone 10! We can grow tropical plants and fruits. Forever we were in Zone 9, but thanks to you-know-who, we can now safely grow the good stuff. It’s a silver lining. Okay. Thanks Al Gore. There. I said it. Dagnabbit!

JJ Mayes Wildlife Trace is Very Dry

Down at the JJ Mayes Wildlife Trace, Baytown Bert talks about how dry and quiet the Trace is and wonders if he will encounter any wild hogs on this hike.

JJ Mayes Wildlife Trace Hike

Not one to pass up an opportunity to go hiking, I spent 3 hours hiking 10 miles in the hundred degree Texas heat today at the JJ Mayes Wildlife Trace.

One Hundred and One Days

One hundred and one days ago I learned of my Army Veteran son’s untimely death.

One hundred and one days ago my bride, daughter and loving family had our hearts ripped out and our lives turned upside down. One hundred days have passed and I think we are slowly entering into the final stage of grief, which is Acceptance. I sure hope so. The last stage was a bummer.

One hundred and one days ago we entered the darkest days of our lives.

One hundred and one days ago I learned that my bride, daughter, our loving family and yes, even me are loved so much more deeply than I could have ever imagined. There has truly been a silver lining in the darkest of clouds. It hasn’t all been bad believe me. Our friends have suffered also, but spread their wings of love to comfort us in our time of profound desperation.

One hundred and one days ago my aging Dad, whom I had never seen shed a tear, looked at me, and with eyes over-flowing muttered, “Nick is the first one of us to go” and he is correct – but who could have predicted it, or even prevented his demise. I will not torment myself with conjecture.

Many hundreds of thousands of war veterans live out their lives in silence with untreated depression, taking each day as a challenge to make sense of their lives. Some are even successful in turning it around – some aren’t. I think back on comments my Iraqi Freedom decorated son made leading up to this fateful night and realize a lot of signs were there to be read and I mostly missed them.

The fourth and worst stage is Depression and it has horrors of its own. We are slowly rising above it, each of us at our own pace. My son Nick once looked at me and said point blank “I have trouble with depression”. Another time he said in a monotone “Dad, you don’t know what’s like to be in combat” and then he fell silent. Mostly he was silent and ninety per cent of what we learned about our son’s war-life came from the stories of his friends and fellow soldiers after his funeral.

One of the standout characteristics of depression, I now know well, is the inability to carry on as before. Sufferers row in circles and many times they don’t even care. Untreated, as in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be and many times is fatal.

In my own case, it has been impossible to resume my life pre-funeral. Forgive my ignorance please, but up to this point, I personally had never lost someone close to me, let alone my own child.

I have always been self-sufficient as an adult, never imposing my needs and desires extravagantly on friends, or even my own wife. I attempt to make daily progressions, both physically and mentally, studying constantly to improve myself. I work very hard at what I do. I am also my own worst critic.

One hundred and one days ago I drifted into the doldrums of progression and today I felt a slight breeze. Up until now I was fighting a downhill slide occasionally casting a last-ditch anchor to arrest my descent, but I believe I have now bottomed out. In fact I bottomed out about 2 weeks ago and that’s how I know it’s time to put on my sweats, tennis shoes and make like Rocky training to fight Apollo.

I haven’t slipped deeper in the last two weeks and that’s a good thing. I have a feeling there are more good things in my immediate future. I’m ready. It’s all up from here on out and I feel like climbing.

Folks, I have a piece of advise for you and yours concerning depression from the loss of a loved one. If you are suffering from it, understand this is normal, but not permanent. Then realize it can and does get better, but it takes determination and most of all - time. Time is the great healer. One hundred and one days so far.