Tonight in Olympia Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will be giving a lecture.

If you are interested in Science as I am, you may recognize Dr. Tyson from Science Channel, Discovery, PBS, The Learning Channel, and his book, ”

Here is some text previewing his visit to “http://www.evergreen.edu/” The Evergreen State College

Tyson Neil

(Olympia, Wash.) The Evergreen State College welcomes Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of today’s premiere leaders in science, astronomy, and education to Olympia for a presentation and question and answer session on April 29, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at Evergreen’s College Recreation Center (CRC). Renowned astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and host of PBS’s Nova ScienceNow, Dr. Tyson is a leading voice in astronomy who has appeared alongside Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The presentation is being offered in cooperation with KCTS9 Television and the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.

Tickets for the April 29 presentation are on sale now. The public can purchase tickets by phone at (360) 867-6833, online at <a href=”http://www.buyolympia.com/events”>www.buyolympia.com/events,</a> or in person at The Evergreen State College book store, Rainy Day Records in Olympia, or the Communications Building Box Office at The Evergreen State College. The latter is open from noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays. Advance tickets are $20 for reserved section seating (not available at the door), $10 for adult general admission ($13 at the door) and $5 for student general admission ($8 at the door). Student prices apply to youth under age 16 or anyone with valid student ID (e.g. high school or college students). KCTS9 members receive a discount when they purchase online at “http://www.buyolympia.com/events”>www.buyolympia.com/events

My son and I are going to attend the lecture at the College Recreation Center at TESC. I will try to report back on how it goes. I am very excited about this. My son is celebrating his eleventh birthday around now, and he is very scientifically minded and some day wants to either be an engineer for NASA or a chemical company. He is excited as well, to get to see Dr. Tyson.

Posted by Tschida

Just recently, Lacey had an opportunity to get in line with other major communities in Thurston County and pass an ordinance allowing faith based groups to house the homeless in small tent cities.  The current model as adopted by Camp Quixote in Olympia and approved by both Olympia and Tumwater City Councils is functional, sustainable and beneficial to all parties involved.  Lacey however considered an law that would allow only indoor use of churches to house the homeless and would not allow for the proven tent city model.

An article in The Olympian gives many of the sordid details.

While American soldiers sleep in tents in training and in war zones, Deputy Mayor John Darby proclaims “I can’t in good conscience say, ‘Bring your tent to Lacey,’  Why not?  Tents have housed human beings for thousands of years.  If our fighting men and women can use tents, why not some of the most desperate members of our society?

Rather Lacey would compel churches to house homeless indoors.  A noble thought, but not always practical.  If a church can house people indoors, I imagine they would.  Allowing their grounds to be used to host tents is often the most they can do, and still continue to provide a full range of services to the community and their parishioners.

Persons wishing to stay at a shelter must provide photo identification or be fingerprinted.

Lacey also bans homeless persons from possessing weapons in homeless shelters.  While a private property owner can bar weapons from their property, I believe for government to flat out ban certain classes of people from bearing arms is a clear cut violation of the State Constitution, which very carefully protects the right of the individual to keep and bear arms.  Lacey is all over the board on rights violations with this one.  They violate the rights of churches to minister to people in a fashion they see fit, infringing on their right to practice their religion, they infringe on the rights of homeless to bear arms.  Maybe they will start limiting the free speech of homeless, and dictating what they can and cannot read.

Folks, churches should be free to minister to people as they see fit on their own land.  Churches, not the City of Lacey should dictate what persons on their church grounds can and cannot do.  Private property holders can limit users of their property in regards to weapons, city government cannot dictate to certain classes if they can or cannot have legal weapons.  Let the churches determine how they want to house the homeless, and let the churches decide if they want their guests armed.  I say shame on the Lacey City Council!  This is why they are my Vermin of the Week.

NYPD officers cleared in killing; rights leaders want probe

NEW YORK - Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation and vowed to march through the streets in protest after three police officers were cleared of all charges Friday in the killing of an unarmed man cut down in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.

Full story here.

Okay folks, I’m not anti cop, but I am anti stupid.  Let me get this straight.  One unarmed man.  Three cops.  50 FREAKING ROUNDS OF AMMO!  Holy Cow!  One officer fired 31 TIMES!  That looks like one 15 round mag with one in the pipe, PLUS another FULL 15 ROUND MAG!  That ladies and gentlemen is excessive force plain and simple.  Perhaps Sarah Brady should look into restricting the capacity of NYPD magazines.  Seems like they can use high capacity magazines to some insane ends.

I’m not sure what is crazier.  Firing 50 rounds, including at least one reload at a poor unarmed schmuck, or the fact that all three officers were cleared of any wrongdoing.  I know New York City has a lot of people living there, but has life become so cheap?  Or is the city fearful of huge lawsuits?

When cops make mistakes they should be held accountable, and corrupt politics and/or a government’s unwillingness to accept responsibility should not allow people to get away with murder.

These three officers reflect badly on cops in general.  The good guys are never remembered, but the ones who make fools of themselves are remembered all too long.

He wrote a very nice post about doctor shortages based off an op-ed piece from The Olympian. Wordpress is picky and you have to select an area to publish it in, otherwise it goes to a default area. I deleted his post and didn’t save a copy like I thought I did, which is a shame as it was well thought out and in depth. I’m sorry T, I owe you beer.

This whole webpage admin thing is new to me, and things are in a bit of a flux with the site, so if something stupid happens, it’s not on purpose.

All of a sudden I have users! Woohoo! Folks, I appreciate people coming here and using what I have made available. I hadn’t originally planned on this, it kinda just happened. I know a few folks drifted over here from another blog site and have had problems with the admin over there. Just a few quick reminders. Not everyone reading this website is from Olympia, or uses Olyblog. Please no attacks or charges against Olyblog admin, or admin of other sites for that matter. This is not the place for that, I really need this website to be open to anyone on the net wandering by.

While the current status of most users allows them to put original content anywhere on this website, I really need a little cooperation on one issue. The front welcome page, the section “My Blog” and the “Vermin of the Week” section are mine. I don’t think the software will allow me to limit other users putting content on certain pages. I am more than happy to host any content you would like to put up that falls within the minimal rules I put up on the forum page, just please put it in either the local section, guns, or forum. Wordpress tools are a bit confusing, so I’m not really tripping on this one.

Also, when quoting an article from another source, please just quote the first paragraph or two, provide a link back to the original source, and publicly attribute where the article came from. Anything else may be copyright infringement. If you care to include your opinion on the subject matter, go right ahead. I appreciate cooperation on this matter.

Like I’ve said elsewhere, very few rules. PG language, no direct attacks, racial slurs, attacks on religion, or anti gun articles. If something annoys me enough to take it down, I will let you know why. I won’t waste my time emailing folks if I have to edit language. If you use a four letter word, and I change it to something else, don’t stress it.

These are how things are, after all this is “Steve’s Blog” So pull up a keyboard, and make yourself at home. The rules are few and far between and pretty open for folks. Thanks for your cooperation!

Guns are fun and/or necessary - when they’re in responsible hands. Meat is good. There’s nothing wrong with Religion. Unauthorized grafitti is vandalism. Single-family homes with big yards are the American Dream. Cars are more convenient than bikes. Some people need to just get off their ass and be willing to work.  The streets are mine too, so don’t block them.  The Police should arrest bad-guys - even when they’re not Caucasian.  Abortion stops a beating heart.

Whew! As long as I don’t talk about Palestine we’ll probably be alright.

[EDIT: I see this doesn’t automatically identify us ~ Merwyn]

Thanks for the invite to the blog. I look forward to helping this grow and be a place where people are actually free to say

what they think and feel!

C.

Pizza Hut and it’s parent company YUM! Brands earn the dubious honor of vermin of the week over this now well known incident and the fact that the brave driver still isn’t back to work.

From the Des Moines Register…

“A pizza deliveryman told Des Moines police that he shot a man who robbed him at gunpoint when he delivered a pie late Thursday to a south-side address.

The alleged assailant, Kenneth Jimmerson, 19, was taken to Mercy Medical Center in serious condition. He was charged this morning with first-degree robbery and will be taken to Polk County Jail when released from the hospital, police said.

Melanie Stout, 18, the woman who placed the order for the pizzas, was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.

Restaurant officials have suspended the Pizza Hut driver, James William Spiers, while the case is under investigation. Polk County officials today confirmed that Spiers holds a valid gun permit, which was renewed in November.”

Full story here.

Yum! Brands owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silvers and A&W.

Given as they could care less about the safety of their employees, or their basic fundamental right to self protection while engaged in a dangerous job, they are my Vermin of the Week. I suggest a boycott is in order.

Ok folks. Everyone registered right now has “author” status. When you log in you can create unique content. When you get to the login meta page choose “write” you can write whatever you like. If you scroll down you will see checklist of places where you can publish your post. Make sure you choose “publish” from the drop down menu of the right, and then click “publish” in the box below that. POST ONLY FORUM, LOCAL or GUNS. Anywhere else I will move around or delete as a see fit. “Steve’s Blog” and “Vermin of the Week” are for yours truly only. Local is for Olympia area. Anything else goes under “Forum”. “Guns” speaks for itself. I will delete all anti gun posts out of hand and write a nasty letter to anyone who posts such evil tirades. Of course you can still comment on anything I write on my reserved pages, just don’t put your own content under those two headings. This is a PG blog please. If you must use strong language, $%!@#$) works, or so does using the first letter of the word followed by dashes. We’ll get the idea.

To the refugees from Olyblog… Welcome! There are very few rules here, excepting what I have laid out above. I reserve the right to remove posts that are overly defamatory, demeaning to religions and racial groups, or that just plain annoy me. I’ve got pretty broad views, so as long as you are reasonably polite things should be just fine. I won’t delete on politics, but behavior.

On OpenCarry.Org the admin there reminds folks “we all carry guns, act accordingly.” Basically if you treat folks here like you would if you were sitting with them at a bar sharing a brew and burgers everything will be fine. Debate is welcome, hostile behavior isn’t.

That said, welcome to my odd little corner of the internet!

Been too busy lately to post much. Today we South Sounders suffered under rain, hail, wind, snow and the occasional five minute burst of sunshine. Gotta love this part of Washington State huh?

If the two Democrats keep fighting at each other, they are liable to let McCain waltz right into office. Not that he is much better IMHO, but he is the lesser of weasels.

I arranged a ride along with Olympia Police Department for May 5. Strangely enough, they are asking that I not even wear my sidearm and check it in before the ride. This confuses the heck out of me. I can understand them not wanting someone not a cop packing heat in one of their cars, but state law allows for (requires actually) a place to secure a firearm while engaged in certain business with the police. OPD can’t tell me not to wear my sidearm and check it in, but they sure have suggested strongly I don’t. Very very odd. I’ll get to the bottom of it though.

Hopefully I’ll get some more time soon to put up some in depth writing and pictures. To my handful of readers, thanks for reading and for your patience.