Icewind's Ramblings

With the ongoing problems with people trying to do harm to our country there is a way that these ‘enemy combatants’ . . . yes we are still at ‘war’ after the attack on our country on 9/11 . . . could be handled that is workable for almost everyone. Trying to solve the world’s problems with style takes thinking outside the box.  This administration has been trying to figure out what to do with the Gitmo detainees.  Do we close the facility or continue to keep them in Gitmo? De we set them free to wander off to parts unknown to continue their mission?  What about sending them back to their home country to be revitalized into their organized cells?  Do we let them loose inside America to wreak havoc on our soil again? How do we get our heads around this so that it makes sense and can be monitored to ensure our safety?  This might work and can be done with technology that is already used . . . just modified somewhat in scope and magnitude.  Each detai...

Last week there was the big news that Oprah is retiring from her talk show after 20 + years giving everyone information, book reviews and an occasional prize or two for her loyal fans who were in the studio to see her. Over the years she has tried to stimulate the economy as in the big car giveaway to her audience in 2004 where everyone in her studio opened a gift box with the key to a new automobile inside.  She was helping the auto industry long before they needed their bailout.  Probably better than that forty five hundred bucks the Government gave out. Has anyone ever heard of writing off charity on your taxes?  Hmmmm . . . pretty sure you can or put it as a “business expense.”  In 2008 she made 385 million dollars . . . that could potentially buy 1,428 people a new Cadillac Escalade while still having 285 million left over . . . so essentially she could afford to have all of us drive a new car with enough left over to buy plenty of Black Angus burgers and...

I was looking for a flying segment from Alaska this afternoon that I thought might have made it to video on YouTube when in my search I came across an old video from my youth. It is from my hang gliding days when I was a free spirit traveling the world flying hang gliders, tow kites, and hot air balloons. Skydog has put up a video from the Chicago Fest Tow Gliding Invitational that was held each summer in front of the Holiday Inn on the Lakefront. It was a lot of fun as I was one of the “Moyes Boys” flying Moyes Gliders. They were made in Sydney Australia by Bill Moyes and his son Steve. I was flying for a team out of Georgia that owned Hang Glider Heaven. It’s funny seeing this after so many years ago as it reminds us what we have done in our lives and also what choices made or paths crossed over the years. This is footage from the four years that it was held from 1974 to 1977 and more or less was a competition between two Australians who started the p...