President Reagan with actress Victoria Principal during a photo opportunity with the Arthritis Poster Child of the Year in the Oval Office. 5/29/86.
From Oct. 28, 1980 in Cleveland, here is part 8 of the Carter-Reagan Presidential Debate, as taped from WJKW-TV, CBS. Amazing how things have changed…and yet stayed the same…in almost 30 years!!!
Ronald Reagan came to the presidency with several important political advantages. He had an express mandate from the American people who knew what he intended to do — cut income taxes from top to bottom, reduce the size of the federal government for the first time since the New Deal, and make the U.S. military Number One in the world. To help him in this revolutionary task, he had a Republican Senate and a feisty Republican minority in the House determined to avoid legislative gridlock.
And he had something else, something that neither Robert Taft nor Barry Goldwater could have counted on if either of them had been elected president — a vital, committed conservative movement. Reagan could turn to the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and other think tanks for ideas.
He could call on groups like the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, the American Conservative Union, the National Rifle Association and the National Tax Limitation Committee for political muscle.
He could staff his administration with professionals who had gotten their start in the movement. In the White House alone, there were conservatives Ed Meese, Richard V. Allen, Martin Anderson, Robert Carleson, Lyn Nofziger, Tony Dolan, and Kenneth Cribb, all in senior positions. And he could draw on the neoconservatives for respected foreign policy experts such as Jeane Kirkpatrick, Max Kampelman, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, and Elliott Abrams.
Outside his administration, Reagan could depend on the support of opinion molders like columnists George Will, Patrick J. Buchanan, William F. Buckley, Jr., James J. Kilpatrick, and John Chamberlain. Will and Buchanan would become major television commentators before the end of the decade; Buckley, it seemed, had always been a major TV presence. Reagan could rely for guidance on the analytical skills of the editors and writers of a wide range of journals like National Review, Human Events, The American Spectator, Commentary, The Public Interest, The National Interest, and the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal.
And thanks to direct mail, there was sufficient money to fund the activities of the conservative movement — and those of the Republican party, especially when Reagan signed the letter.
Former Arkansas Gazette reporter and later independent journalist Carol Griffee died last night in hospice, we just learned from an e-mail from historian Michael Dougan.
“The Grif” was all business — she recently called Max to matter-of-factly inform him that she was dying and was putting her affairs in order — and in addition to her memorable work on the Vertac plant in Jacksonville and other environmental stories, colleagues remember her labors covering murderess Mary Lee Orsini. In her Gazette Project interview, Griffee told interviewer Michael Haddigan that she “should never have been involved in covering” the Orsini case. “It just made a total nervous wreck out of me. I [laughs] nearly lost it a couple of times.”
An excerpt from the Gazette Project interview on the Orsini case:
MH: Well, I want to make sure I ask you this question. There’s an often-told story about you coming to work and walking across the parking lot with a shotgun.
CG: Absolutely!
MH: What was that about?
CG: I carried a double-barreled shotgun.
MH: Was that . . .?
CG: I was being watched. No, this was just during the McArthur thing.
MH: Right.
CG: I was being watched, and I knew it.
MH: Who was watching you?
CG: I have a feeling it was Orsini, but I don’t really know for sure. But I was quite aware of it. Not only that, but there was one day when John Woodruff had to come to the house to get me out of my house, that’s how scared I was! [Laughs]
“Gerrymandering” Film Exposes Truth of Redistricting
Bill Plante talks to Jeff Reichert, the writer/director of “Gerrymandering,” a new documentary film that uncovers the way that congressional districts are drawn up.
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In my last post about redistricting, the point was made that State House and Senate redistricting could lead to many little Fayetteville Fingers. However, Brummett makes the point today that mood more than maps will make the difference. Max Brantley agrees. In his blog post, “Brummett to GOP: Take a deep breath,” Arkansas Times Blog, May 26, 2011, Brantley asserted, “Legislative lines are of relatively small importance against prevailing political moods anyway.”
Here is the deal: It is well-understood that the elections for governor, attorney general and secretary of state take on extra importance to the political parties, if not so much the general public, in census-year elections.
That’s because those three people will draw the new state legislative districts. It is because of a common universal understanding that the party with control of this board will exercise that control to protect and enhance its legislative districting position.
In 1981, two young Democrats — Attorney General Steve Clark and Secretary of State Paul Riviere — redrew these districts. The third Apportionment Board member was the governor, who happened to be Republican Frank White, who had upset Bill Clinton.
The late and lovable Frank didn’t much like it that Clark and Riviere did the work themselves without including him at all, but his reaction was one of amused scoffing.
He never put out a news release accusing Clark and Riviere of being Democrats who favored Democrats and Democratic interests.
The eventual issue here — the one to which I alluded by invoking potential little-bitty Fayetteville Fingers — is whether Beebe and McDaniel can be sufficiently deft and subtle. The Fayetteville Finger was a brazen overreach, the mapping of which revealed its own heavy-handedness.
So let us take a few deep breaths and wait for Beebe and McDaniel to show us what they have in the desk drawer. Brazen overreaching and heavy-handedness — those, if evident, will be cause for Republican whining. Even a left-leaning columnist would agree.
P.S. — If the state is tilting Republican in the way I think, maps will matter less than moods, anyway
2000: The Terminator with Mrs Baena and his son Christopher, who was born five days before the housekeeper gave birth to his secret lovechild.
1994: Schwarzenegger and his housekeeper Mildred Baena share a dance at a family party
4 of 7
A general view of the home of Mildred Patricia Baena, a member of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s household staff for 20 years, is seen in Bakersfield
I got a lot out of this article below: Adrift in Marriage:Jerry and Olivia Dugan wanted to stay married but didn’t know how by Mary May Larmoyeux When Jerry and Olivia Dugan got married, they pledged lifelong commitment to one another. After all, they each knew firsthand how divorce rips families apart. They had individually […]
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments: […]
Hot Topics-Arnold’s Love Child – The View Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In […]
Schwarzenegger’s Love Child Bombshell Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger: News On Woman & Love Child TMZ Scoop Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica In This Photo: Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA. (// May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com) Hot Topics-Arnold’s Love Child – […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica In This Photo: Maria Shriver, Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA. (May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com) Schwarzenegger’s Love Child Bombshell Maria Shriver Asks – […]
California First Lady Maria Shriver (L-R) California First Lady Maria Shriver, niece of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, her son Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger and her husband CaliforniaGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger attend funeral services for Senator Kennedy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts in this August 29, 2009 file photo. Former […]
The private driveway to former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home is seen in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California May 17, 2011. Schwarzenegger,newly estranged from his wife of 25 years and seeking to resume his Hollywood career, has acknowledged fathering a child more than a decade ago with a member of his household staff ______________________________________ California Governor […]
File photo of Schwarzenegger File photo of the Schwarzenegger family: (L-R) Maria Shriver, Christina, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick(AFP/Getty Images/File/Jason Merritt)… Arnold Schwarzenegger Fathers Love Child With Longtime Member Of Household Staff Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had […]
The Schwarzenegger Family Voting In This Photo: Christina Schwarzenegger Governor Schwarzenegger goes to cast his vote on election day with his wife Maria Shriver and their daughters Christina and Katherine (her first time voting), at the Kenter Canyon elementary school in Brentwood. Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold […]
___________________________________________ Arnold Schwarzenegger & Family Out For A Walk In Santa Monica In This Photo: Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christina Schwarzenegger The Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a walk on Ocean Ave with his wife Maria Shriver and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger in Santa Monica, CA. (// May 23, 2009- Photo by FlynetPictures.com) Maria Shriver Asks – […]
File photo of Schwarzenegger File photo of the Schwarzenegger family: (L-R) Maria Shriver, Christina, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick(AFP/Getty Images/File/Jason Merritt)… Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of […]
California First Lady Maria Shriver (L-R) California First Lady Maria Shriver, niece of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, her son Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger and her husband CaliforniaGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger attend funeral services for Senator Kennedy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts in this August 29, 2009 file photo. Former […]
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his son Christopher, 9, and his wife Maria Shriver hold hands as they walk to their vehicle after voting inthe U.S. midterm elections at the Crestwood Hills Recreation Center in Los Angeles, California, in this November 7, 2006 file photo. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has acknowledged […]
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life? Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments: […]
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In this series “Will Maria Shriver’s marriage survive Arnold Schwarzenegger’s admission of infidelity? I hope so,” there has been a great reaction to it by the public. I have included articles from “Family Life” of Little Rock, Arkansas about how to recover from an infidelity. I have also included info on how to take part in a “Weekend to Remember,” where you can hear “Family Life” speakers with your spouse. The only hope for Maria’s marriage will come from the power of Christ in her life to forgive. “A Family Life Conference” would be a great first step. Below is some info on that:
In just one November weekend, for example, more than 6,200 people attended 10 Weekend to Remember® marriage getaways around the country. Here are a couple quotes from those who went:
We are moving from a place of being ready to divorce to looking forward to growing together through Christ. This has given us important tools to do so.
We’ve been walking separate roads for many years. Infidelity was the final straw leading us to divorce. I was filling out the papers two days before we came to this event. Over the course of the weekend we found each other, wrote love letters that will be kept as reminders of our true love for each other. I granted forgiveness that my husband really needed. We are going to burn the divorce papers when we get home!
In today’s culture, the issues of marriage and family are open doors for the gospel–the Good News of Christ. Because people want their marriages and families to succeed.
Arnold Schwarzenegger & Maria Shriver Divorce, Prenup Discussion With Robert Brandt
The Schwarzenegger Shriver divorce will throw off a big number for sure. The legal complexities involved in this process are fascinating. Los angeles family law specialist Robert Brandt (Feinberg Mindel Brandt $ Klein) says the most interesting aspect is how Schwarzenegger was able to keep this quiet so long given the woman and boy were living in the house.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s divorce could cost him $200 million.
The ‘Terminator’ star split from wife Maria Shriver after 25 years earlier this month and she is now set to begin divorce proceedings against him following the revelation he fathered a child with their housekeeper Mildred ‘Patty’ Baena, and it is thought their assets – estimated between $200 and $400 million – could be divided evenly.
While the couple is believed to have a prenuptial agreement, because of the former Governor of California’s infidelity and the length of the marriage, it could be voided.
Instead they would then have to split their net worth, as per Californian law.
Although Maria hasn’t announced official divorce plans yet, she is believed to have hired top divorce lawyer Laura Wasser.
Meanwhile, Patty’s ex-husband Rogelio Baena – who believed her son Joseph, now 13, was his child – has spoken of how betrayed he feels, particularly after the actor gave him “a big Judas hug,” and told him “You must be so proud”.
Rogelio – who divorced Patty two years ago – told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I have been betrayed, and I’m shocked and very angry. I want to know what Mr. Schwarzenegger has to say for himself.
“We met many times and he always treated me as a friend – but he was lying. He has lied to me and he has lied to everyone. I feel like he has stuck a knife through my heart.”
He also branded Patty – who has gone into hiding – a “snake,” and said he will always feel like Joseph’s father.
Governor Schwarzenegger goes to cast his vote on election day with his wife Maria Shriver and their daughters Christina and Katherine (her first time voting), at the Kenter Canyon elementary school in Brentwood.
(// November 4, 2008- Photo by FlynetPictures.com)
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lawyer Wednesday denied tabloid rumors the former California governor used state funds to cover up his extramarital exploits, “Entertainment Tonight” reported.
Schwarzenegger’s legal rep, Marty Singer, said claims his client used members of the California Highway Patrol to “to ferry scantily clad women in and out of his [hotel] suite” were “completely false.”
“Unfortunately, the media’s relentless desire for new information has some outlets running stories that are made up by paying sources that have zero credibility,” Singer said about The National Enquirer report, which cited a former hotel security officer.
“My client stated from the beginning that he takes full responsibility for his actions and deserves the public and media criticism. This does not entitle some in the media to be totally irresponsible,” the lawyer added, referring to the recent revelations, in the wake of Schwarzenegger’s split with wife Maria Shriver, that the movie star turned politician had fathered a lovechild with housekeeper Mildred Patty Baena.
Despite the denial by Singer — who is also representing actor Charlie Sheen in his Warner Bros. lawsuit — the California Attorney General will pursue an inquiry into the alleged misuse of government resources, according to Radar Online.
As Singer handles the media storm over the lovechild bombshell, Schwarzenegger is laying low and was spotted out on a bike ride Wednesday in the celebrity getaway of Ketchum, Idaho.
Two former California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers also spoke out Wednesday, denying they helped the former California governor cover up his love affairs.
“I can say without a shadow of a doubt as a supervisor of his protective detail that at no time did I see Governor Schwarzenegger say or do anything that could be deemed inappropriate,” retired CHP Sergeant Mark Hammond, who worked for Schwarzenegger for seven years, told TMZ.
Retired CHP officer Manny Trevino reiterated the denial, saying, “I never witnessed the Governor acting in a less than honorable manner.”
Meanwhile another woman — child actress Gigi Goyette — told “Extra” she had an affair with Schwarzenegger in the late eighties, while he was married to Shriver.
“Arnold is a very physical and sexual man, with a voracious appetite that likes a lot of physical attention,” Goyette told the entertainment TV program.
Singer similarly dismissed that reported affair, calling Goyette “a person who wants to make money selling stories,” according to People magazine.
Schwarzenegger, 63, and Shriver announced in May they had separated after 25 years of marriage which produced four children — Katherine, 21, Christina, 19, Patrick, 17, and 13-year-old Christopher.
Shriver, 55, has already hired one of Hollywood’s top divorce lawyers, Laura Wasser, and could file for divorce by the end of the week, sources suggest.
Destroyed vehicles are piled on top of one another in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses. Photo by The Associated Press.
CNN: 2011 tornado season worst since 1953
CNN Meteorologist, Rob Marciano, talks to Piers Morgan about the increase and severity of tornadoes.
So far, 2011 has proved a year destined for the tornado record books.
Nearly 1,200 tornadoes have swarmed the United States this year, according to preliminary numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Four of these storms have been rated at the highest tornado strength, an EF-5. The death toll from these tornadoes has likely topped 500, a number not seen since 1953.
But why has this year seen so many and such devastating twisters? Scientists point to several large-scale climate factors, some of which have been at work behind the scenes since winter. And at least some of the mind-boggling tornado numbers, believe it or not, can be chalked up to humans — there are more of us around to see them.
La Niña’s exit
Some of the blame for the wild tornado streak lies with La Niña, a cyclical system of trade winds that cools the waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. (El Niño is La Niña’s warm-water counterpart.)
Although we were in the grip of one of the most powerful La Niñas on record this last year, La Niña made a sudden exit about three months ago, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
“La Niña would have been beneficial for all these people that have been so clobbered,” Patzert said. “If La Niña had maintained its strength, perhaps we wouldn’t have seen so many tornadoes.”
How do trade winds in the Pacific relate to deadly storms in the southern and central United States? It has to do with the jet stream, a high-speed air current that is essentially an atmospheric fence where cool, dry air meets up with warm, moist air — two of the main ingredients for severe storms. [Related: Why Tornado Forecasting is Tough]
La Niña has a stabilizing effect on the jet stream, and pushes it to higher latitudes.
Without La Niña around, the jet stream has gone rogue, Patzert told OurAmazingPlanet. “This time of the year it should be farther north,” he said.
Instead, the jet stream has spent April and May draped across the middle of the country, where it has the chance to violently mix cool, dry northern air with warm, moist southern air.
And in 2011, those two air masses have been on the extreme ends of the temperature scale.
Hot and cold
Patzert said lingering effects of last winter’s record snowfalls and snow packs have kept northern air especially cold, and the strong La Niña fueled unusually hot conditions in the southwest.
In addition, the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico is between 1.8 and 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 to 1.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than average, said Jake Crouch, a climatologist at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
Crouch said the warm, moist air is the perfect fuel for severe weather.
“If there’s more moisture and the atmosphere is warmer, it’s more unstable, so there’s more potential there for severe thunderstorms to develop,” Crouch told OurAmazingPlanet.
Like gasoline on a fire, those extremes provide the potential for more storms, and more powerful ones. And when powerful thunderstorms run into the windy conditions that occur each spring, they often begin to spin — and sometimes with horrifying consequences.
The tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., killing at least 125 people, is not only the deadliest single tornado to strike the United States since 1947, but the storm has now been upgraded to an EF-5, the most intensely damaging tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds in excess of 200 mph (322 kph).
It is the fourth EF-5 tornado this year. In contrast, a single EF-5 hit the United States in 2008, one hit in 2007; before that, the last EF-5 hit in 1999.
Numbers game
However, scientists say it’s important to take a hard look at the numbers before jumping to any conclusions about the sheer numbers of tornadoes in the United States, and whether those numbers are going up.
“Just because we’ve seen an increase in the number of tornadoes doesn’t mean there has actually been an increase in the number of tornadoes,” said Greg Carbin, the warning coordination meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
Decades ago, when the country was more sparsely populated — and not everyone had a camera-equipped cell phone — there were simply fewer people around to spot and report tornadoes, Carbin said.
In addition, Carbin said, many initial tornado tallies include tornadoes that are counted more than once.
According to NOAA’s preliminary count, April saw 875 tornadoes. “That’s a gigantic number,” Carbin said. “It may turn out there were that many tornadoes, but I can guarantee that many of those were not significant tornadoes, but they get into the database now because everyone has a tornado they want to report.”
The highest number of tornadoes on record for any month is 542, from May 2003. Carbin said he suspects that once all the data are compiled, April’s numbers will be closer to the May 2003 numbers.
In addition, both Carbin and Crouch pointed to the fact that with increasing urbanization, more people are affected when storms do hit, putting tornadoes in the spotlight.
Numbers and climate conditions aside, one thing is for certain, the scientists said — this tornado season has been unusually violent, as the horrific images splashed across the evening news attest, and it’s not even close to being over.
Destructive Joplin Missouri Torando On May 22, 2011 a destructive and sadly a deadly tornado tore through the town of Joplin, MO. Here is video of the tornado entering the southwest side of town. Filmed by TornadoVideos.net Basehunters Colt Forney, Isaac Pato, Kevin Rolfs, and Scott Peake. Good Morning America: Joplin, Missouri Tornado Video: Storm […]
Destroyed helicopter lies on its side A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornadomoved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses Emergency personnel walk Emergency personnel walk through […]
The last video listed does not have very good pictures but you hear when the tornado hits a building where people inside are filming. The sounds are just horrible and a cold feeling went through my body just listening to it. Joplin, Missouri tornado damage from the air Tornado damage of Joplin, Missouri. Aerial coverage […]
Volunteer firefighters William Jackson Volunteer firefighters William Jackson, left, and Ashley Martin, center, from Oklahoma, and Johnny Ward of Joplin look through the wreckage of a home whereit was feared a pregnant woman as feared to be trapped following a tornado in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through […]
Fox News reported today: Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that blasted much of this Missouri town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital. At least 125 people died, making it the nation’s deadliest single tornado in nearly […]
People walk down a street lined with destroyed homes in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city, damaging a hospitaland hundreds of homes and businesses
The Republicans said that “even left-leaning columnist John Brummett” had said on Roby Brock’s Talk Business show Sunday night that, conceivably, the Democratic dominance of this board could result in new state House and Senate districts that would include a whole bunch of “little bitty Fayetteville Fingers.”
In the first place: What does the word “even” mean in that construction? Is it that “even that idiot in the newspaper” sees it our way? Why, then, covet an alliance with an idiot?
In the second place, “left-leaning,” to which I’ll admit more days than not, applies to matters of philosophy, not to knee-jerk partisan matters of procedural behavior in drawing of district maps.
There is no left-leaning position on mapping, which would help explain why I found so offensive that “Fayetteville Finger,” by which Democrats wanted to redraw state legislative districts to carve Fayetteville out of the 3rd District and attach it conspicuously to the 4th.
There can be a party position on legislative districts, you see, but not a philosophical position — beyond, that is, righteous indignation over gerrymandering, whatever its partisan persuasion….
The eventual issue here — the one to which I alluded by invoking potential little-bitty Fayetteville Fingers — is whether Beebe and McDaniel can be sufficiently deft and subtle. The Fayetteville Finger was a brazen overreach, the mapping of which revealed its own heavy-handedness.
So let us take a few deep breaths and wait for Beebe and McDaniel to show us what they have in the desk drawer. Brazen overreaching and heavy-handedness — those, if evident, will be cause for Republican whining. Even a left-leaning columnist would agree.
The Killing Wind – The F5 Tornado in Flint Michigan
The Killing Wind takes you back to 1953, before weather sirens, doppler radar, and tornado warnings. On that fateful night in June of 1953, an incomprehensible F5 tornado, the most powerful of its kind in the world, descended during the dinner hour on a main east/west road in the northern section of Flint, Michigan. Go back and hear the story of one Buick nurse as she struggles to comprehend the total destruction of homes, schools, and — lives.
Today, the tornado ranks as the ninth deadliest of all time, and the deadliest of the last 50 years.
When you see the destruction of the vehicles, remind yourself those are 1940’s and 1950’s Buicks, which were several thousands of pounds of solid steel, iron, and metal not like the flimsy plastic cars of today.
A powerful tornado scored a direct hit on the southwest Missouri town of Joplin, killing at least 89 people with many more missing and injured, authorities said on Monday.
The Joplin tornado is the deadliest single twister since Worcester, Massachusetts in June 1953.
Here is a list of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history:
1. Mar 18, 1925 Missouri/Illinois/Indiana; 695 dead
2. May 6, 1840 Natchez, Mississippi; 317 dead
3. May 27, 1896 St. Louis, Missouri; 255 dead
4. April 5, 1936 Tupelo, Mississippi; 216 dead
5. April 6, 1936 Gainesville, Georgia; 203 dead
6. April 9, 1947 Woodward, Oklahoma; 181 dead
7. April 24,1908 Amite, La./Purvis, Miss.; 143 dead
8. June 12, 1899 New Richmond, Wisconsin; 117 dead
9. June 3, 1953 Flint, Michigan; 115 dead
10. May 11, 1953 Waco, Texas; 114 dead
10. May 18, 1902 Goliad, Texas; 114 dead
12. March 23, 1913 Omaha, Nebraska; 103 dead
13. May 26, 1917 Mattoon, Illinois; 101 dead
14. June 23, 1944 Shinnston, West Virginia; 100 dead
15. April 18, 1880 Marshfield, Missouri; 99 dead
16. June 1, 1903 Gainesville/Holland, Georgia; 98 dead
16. May 9, 1927 Poplar Bluff, Missouri; 98 dead
18. May 10, 1905 Snyder, Oklahoma; 97 dead
19. April 24, 1908 Natchez, Mississippi; 91 dead
20. June 9, 1953 Worcester, Massachusetts; 90 dead
21. May 22, 2011 Joplin, Missouri; 89 dead
NOTE: The death toll is expected to rise in Joplin as the search for missing people continues. Also, the figures do not include the series of tornadoes in the Southeast including Alabama in April 2011 which killed at least 345 people in seven states. Of those, 238 deaths were in Alabama, 41 of which were in Tuscaloosa County.
SOURCE: Storm Prediction Center of National Weather Service’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “25 deadliest tornadoes.”
We wonder if she had to hold it in place throughout the entire ceremony.
The Royal Wedding Ceremony of William and Kate Live part 4/4
Prince William and Kate moved in together about a year ago. In this clip above the commentator suggested that maybe Prince Charles and Princess Diana would not have divorced if they had lived together before marriage. Actually Diana was a virgin, and it was Charles’ uncle (Louis Mountbatten) that gave him the advice that he should seek to marry a virgin.
I really do wish Kate and William success in their marriage. I hope they truly are committed to each other, and if they are then the result will be a marriage that lasts their whole lifetime. Nevertheless, I do not think it is best to live together before marriage like they did, and I writing this series to help couples see how best to prepare for marriage.
• When we turn to what the Bible has to say about sex outside of marriage, it’s not hard to sum up the message. Don’t do it. From the Ten Commandments in Exodus to the laws of Leviticus 18, to the instructions of Paul in 1 Corinthians 6-7 to the public embarrassment that attached to the Virgin Mary, the Bible is clear that God’s standard is that sex is to be reserved for marriage, and marriage alone. And unlike much that you’ll find on the shelves of your local Christian bookstore, the Bible doesn’t spend much time trying to justify that standard. You won’t find a verse that says “Thou shalt wait, because it’s better in marriage.” There is no chapter in Scripture that touts the protection from physical disease and emotional heartache that comes from monogamy, although both of those things are true.
Instead, the Bible says things like, “You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 18:4). Or, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The Bible teaches that we should reserve sexual intimacy for marriage for no other reason than that, if we are Christians, we belong to God. Sex outside of marriage is not only a sin against ourselves and our partner, but a fraudulent misrepresentation of God and a cruel distortion of the intimacy he created to be a picture of the eternal intimacy of the Trinity itself. (From the Boundless.org article, “Sex Is Not About Waiting” by Michael Lawrence, published on December 7, 2006)
Dr. Adrian Rogers – Steadfast Loyalty To Your Wife
File photo of the Schwarzenegger family: (L-R) Maria Shriver, Christina, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick(AFP/Getty Images/File/Jason Merritt)…
Arnold Schwarzenegger Fathers Love Child With Longtime Member Of Household Staff
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life?
Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments:
“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”
“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”
Mrs. Shriver has asked for spiritual input and I personally think that unless she gets the spiritual help that she needs then she will end up in the divorce court. I am starting a series on how a marriage can survive an infidelity. My first suggestion would be to attend a “Weekend to Remember” put on by the organization “Family Life” out of Little Rock, Arkansas. I actually posted this as a response to Mrs. Shriver’s request on you tube.
I got so much out of the article “He Led a Double Life,” by Mary May Larmoyeux that I had to share this. Below is the second portion:
One night, when Scott was leaving his girlfriend’s apartment, he discovered that his truck was gone. “I hoped that it had been towed or stolen,” Scott says, “but in my gut I knew that I had been caught again.”
His girlfriend drove him home, where he found the truck. As soon as he walked into the house, he says, “I started in on Sherry and was very verbally abusive and angry.” She told him he could no longer live in the house since he was not living as part of the family.
Scott was stunned by his wife’s words. He packed a bag and left in anger, tearing up part of the yard as he drove away from the house.
Sherry reluctantly filed for divorce and eventually followed through with it. The final divorce proceeding was on September 21, 2005—their fourteenth wedding anniversary.
Scott and Sherry drove to the courthouse together, and he played a CD with teachings about marriage. He hoped this might lead Sherry to change her mind, but it did not. “I angrily went through the proceedings and spent the rest of the day drunk and stoned,” Scott says. “I think I was in a state of shock.”
After the divorce
Two days later, when Scott called to say goodnight to his son, he also talked to Sherry.His girlfriend complained that he spent too much time on the phone with his ex-wife. Even he was surprised by his response. “The fact was that I still did love Sherry.”
Scott’s girlfriend was livid. She punched him in the eye and told him to leave. He gathered all of his belongings, meekly called Sherry, and asked if he could store them in the garage. When he arrived at the house after midnight with his meager belongings, he wanted to see Steven. Sherry refused, and Scott became belligerent. He threatened Sherry with a lawsuit and left.
With just a few items of clothing and a six-pack of beer, he checked into a cheap motel. As soon as he got into his room, he called Sherry and berated her. He didn’t know what to do or where to go. “Everything that I had held dear was gone,” he says.
“When he called me for the second or third time,” Sherry says, “I tried to honor him and not yell at him.” Finally, she contacted Scott’s sister, Nancy, a pastor’s wife, thinking she might be able to talk some sense into her brother.
Nancy convinced Scott to open the Gideon Bible in the room’s nightstand drawer. As she read from the book of Isaiah, he followed along. Tears filled his eyes when he recited Isaiah 55:7: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, for He will freely pardon.”
A changed man
Wanting to get away from reminders of his failures, Scott decided to drive to his mother’s condo in North Carolina. He knew she was visiting family, and he could be alone for a while. He called his boss and said he was quitting his job and moving out of state. His boss was empathetic and wished him well. “I didn’t see how things could possibly work out,” Scott says.
On the road, he hit the radio’s scan button and heard a preacher ask if anyone was listening who didn’t know which way to turn next. “It sounded like he was speaking directly to me.”
The preacher asked the listeners, “Do you want to climb out of the pit of darkness towards the light?” He explained how to repent and give Jesus Christ control, and Scott felt a deep sense of remorse for his wrongdoing. He repeated a simple “sinner’s prayer” to indicate his decision to receive Christ as his Savior and Lord. “I said the prayer and I literally felt different right afterward,” he says. “I felt like I had been carrying so much anger.”
Scott realized that his struggles with drugs and alcohol could be traced to his anger at God for allowing his father to die—just three years after he and Sherry got married. “Somewhere along the line I made the decision that I wasn’t going to talk about it [his father’s death] anymore.”
At the same time, as a volunteer fireman he had learned how to keep things to himself. He wouldn’t talk to anyone about the horrendous things that he often witnessed. “There was one particularly horrible wreck, and for a long time I would look at people’s faces and see one of the victims.”
He drank to avoid the pain. And when his alcohol use became obvious to co-workers, he started to abuse prescription drugs.
The sights, the smells, and the sounds of death haunted Scott until the day his life changed on his way to North Carolina. God doesn’t do this for everyone, Scott says, “but I physically let it [the anger and pain] go. All of those things were gone.”
A Weekend to Remember®
After Scott reached his mother’s house, his sister Nancy and brother-in-law Douglas (who lived nearby) came to see him. “I told them that I had come to accept Christ,” Scott says. He had started reading the Bible regularly, and they realized he was sincere.
Over the next week, news of Scott’s faith reached Sherry. They began studying Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life together, discussing chapters every day by e-mail and then by phone. Scott told Sherry that he wanted to rebuild their relationship, but this time with God in control and at the center. Sherry said she wanted the same thing, realizing “This is the Christian husband that God has for me.” Sherry hoped that someday she and Scott would remarry “But we needed to do it God’s way.”
Sherry had heard about FamilyLife’s marriage conference on the radio—how it helped couples understand and apply God’s blueprints for their marriage. She told Scott, “We aren’t going one more step until we find aWeekend to Remember.” A few days later, Scott registered them for one in Philadelphia.
When the Jennings began their conference weekend, Scott wanted to do everything that he could to deepen his relationship with Jesus Christ and his wife. He wanted to show Sherry that she and God were his main priorities.
The first session of the conference introduces the concept of isolation in marriage, and the common factors that contribute to it. “That session was difficult,” Sherry says, “as we listened to all the familiar ways we broke our marriage and built walls of isolation.”
During the remainder of the weekend, the Jennings heard about God’s plan for marriage, and learned about practical communication tools for improving their relationship. They saw that God had been working in their relationship in ways they didn’t dream of. “We left that weekend knowing that God was using all the trials, tribulations, and ugliness, all our bad decisions from the past 14 years,” Sherry says, “to bring us … to a place to accept each other.”
They prayed that God would lead them in reconciliation and restoration, and also that they would follow and honor Him. Eventually they remarried, on May 5, 2007.
Today, Scott and Sherry not only promote the Weekend to Remember in North Carolina as FamilyLife volunteers, but also lead a marriage ministry in their church.
Sherry says that she now knows the truth about marriage. It’s “about choosing each day, each minute, to honor God with our words and actions, and in turn, we honor our spouses.” She says that God created Scott specifically for her. “How can I not love, honor, treasure a perfect gift from my perfect God?”
Mary May Larmoyeux is a writer and editor for FamilyLife. She is the author of My Heart’s at Home: Encouragement for Working Moms, co-author of There’s No Place Like Home: Steps to Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom, and co-author of theResurrection Eggs® Activity Book.
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Weekend to Remember Story – Dennis Rainey
Chip Ingram – Two Biblical Requirements to Resolve Conflict (pt 4)
To resolve conflict effectively and Biblically there are two absolutes that both parties must agree on – do you know what they are? Without this framework, you can try all kinds of things to avoid or resolve conflict in your marriage and relationships, but you probably won’t be successful. Listen and discover the common ground that can literally transform even the most challenging points of conflict. Want to learn more? Download the full message from guest speaker Tim Lundy for free at: http://www.venturechristian.org/files/sermons2/t032011.mp3
A general view of the home of Mildred Patricia Baena, a member of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s household staff for 20 years, is seen in Bakersfield 
