Signature SundayToday was, and is, "
Signature Sunday" - for all independent and third-party candidates in Illinois.
There is a lot that I could - and will - say about this topic... I just spoke to a woman who is frantically driving towards Chicago, trying to meet a guy, who may be able to put her candidate over the top.
The means that people have to go through, for there to simply be fair elections in our country, these are themselves grossly unfair (that's the nicest term I can think of, for them, right now). I will be updating this post more, but right now, I have to run...
(For the moment, I'll leave you with the latest disturbing news
report from
Capitol Fax - it also pertains to this topic.)
And by the way, I turn 25 tomorrow. This is even scarier than when things like this happened in the past.
posted by Aakash at 10:07 PM
My Father's Day entry from
Watchblog, on June 20, 2005.
---------------------------------------
Happy Father's Day!!I just got back from the West Coast, so I am a little late in posting this… Though over there,
it is still
Father’s Day. For today, I wanted to share the material that the excellent
TownHall.com website (
recently emancipated from
the Heritage Foundation) has featured for this ocassion:
The importance of being DadDads everywhere deserve our gratitude.
- Rebecca Hagelin:
Dad, we need you- Rich Lowry:
Father is the best- Jonah Goldberg:
My Dad, 1931-2005- Charmaine Yoest:
In Pursuit of Princes- Chuck Colson:
Cinderella Man- C-Log: Share your stories about Dad
In presenting his perspective on this day,
blogger Neddy also linked to
that thought-provoking commentary from
Dr. Charmaine Yoest, who
served in the West Wing during the Reagan Administration. Happy Father's Day to 'prince'
Jack.
And from World Net Daily:
-
Healing Fatherlessness, Craig R. Smith
-
Faith of our Fathers, Rebecca Hagelin
And don't miss the latest article from
renowned [and
pro-America!]
war correspondent Joe Galloway (of "
We Were Soldiers" fame):
From Iraq, a Soldier/Father's Perspective on the War(Hat tip: Yesterday's edition of Antiwar.com)Happy Father's Day to you and yours.
Posted by Aakash at June 20, 2005 03:04 AM
---------------------------------
posted by Aakash at 11:58 PM
I apologize (not the first time, won't be the last) once again for not having posted in awhile; my backlog of blog entries, that I need to get published, is now extending for miles longer than it's ever been before.
Meanwhile, it seems that despite this being summer "
break" - the amount of work that I've been placed into is more than before... Well, perhaps not more than during the school year, because of the fact that
CR-related activity has died down somewhat (though it's still very much there!), though I am working full time now, and the weariness factor [from last summer] has started to kick in.
There is so much to vent about, but for now, I was simply planning to post (see the entry below), an article pertaining to my previous entry, regarding the
National Spelling Bee. (I said in that entry that I would update it with info on my personal experiences with Bees, and I still plan to do that - but right now, I am simply going to post this article from our local newspaper, from
March 1996.)
Wow... I can't believe that it's now been a decade. Darn it...
From the State Journal-Register - March 23, 1996
To bee or not to bee? / Grant Middle School student skips math contest to win spelling title
FRANK FUHRIG STAFF WRITER
It's not as if Yogesh Raut had nothing else to do.
The Springfield eighth-grader qualified Saturday for the National Spelling Bee by outlasting competitors from Cass, Menard, Macoupin, Montgomery, Morgan, Scott and Sangamon counties in The State Journal-Register regional bee.
Yogesh also was eligible for the state finals -- held Saturday in Champaign -- for a national math competition. It was not an easy decision, according to his father.
"He made a choice to come here," said Jagdish Raut, moments after Yogesh's victory. "His older brother said, 'Look, you'll have math competitions all through high school.' But this is his last year for spelling.
"His older brother gave him perfect advice."
Aakash Raut, now a Springfield High School sophomore, competed regionally in spelling, math and geography in middle school. Later this spring, Yogesh will compete in a national qualifying geography event.
As a seventh-grader, Yogesh finished in the top three in last year's regional spelling bee.
The last several rounds Saturday seesawed between Yogesh and Sarah Reardon, a fifth-grader at St. Agnes School.
"That little girl, she stole my heart," said Raut.
Sarah was already close on Yogesh's heels last year, placing sixth as a fourth-grader against much older competitors. Jarrett Wright of Rochester was the lone fourth-grader in this year's bee.
"We were thrilled to see her back," said Sarah's mother, Kim Reardon. "But we weren't sure she'd get to go as far as she did."
But experience was no cure for the butterflies in Sarah's stomach. "I was pretty nervous all the way through," she said.
The starting field of 33 -- all champions from their local schools or districts -- was eventually pared down to nine. After a short break, those semifinalists were were whittled down to four finalists.
They battled for several rounds until Lora Schmitt, a fifth-grader at North Jacksonville Elementary School, was stopped by erudition, learning acquired chiefly from books. Wesley Helmholz, a seventh-grader at St. Agnes School in Springfield, followed her out on malediction, or a curse, leaving Sarah and Yogesh.
Spellers used various styles to give their answers.
Yogesh would loudly call out each letter, overcoming words such as octahedron, a solid bounded by eight plane faces. Wesley correctly delivered solfatara, a volcanic area that vents partly sulfurous gases, after asking for the word's origin, which is Latin.
Sarah seemed stumped several times before making educated guesses -- as she later admitted -- on such words as epos, epic poetry, and vellication, twitching.
Sarah finally stumbled in the 36th round on palatinate, a princely territory with royal privileges, leaving the door open for Yogesh to secure the win with cognomen, a distinguishing name or epithet.
"The last word," said his father, "that was a tough one."
Yogesh will represent central Illinois in May at the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Tough words 1997 Regional Spelling Bee champion Yogesh Raut delivered correct answers in all 37 rounds. The eight other semifinalists, their grades, schools and the words that tripped them up
Wesley Helmholz, 7th, St. Agnes, Springfield: malediction (finalist).
Sarah Henkle, 5th, Iles, Springfield: aporia.
Paul Koepp, 8th, Turner Junior High, Jacksonville: calabash.
Hannah Langhoff, 5th, Zion Lutheran, Litchfield: capitatim.
Braden Radtke, 8th, Trinity Lutheran, Springfield: competency.
Sarah Reardon, 5th, St. Agnes, Springfield: palatinate (finalist).
Lora Schmitt, 5th, North, Jacksonville: erudition (finalist).
Allen Wittman, 7th, Southwestern Middle, Piasa: marmot.
GRAPHIC: T.J. Salsman / The State Journal-Register; "There were a few words I wan't really sure about," said Yogesh Raut of Grant Middle School in Springfield, who won Saturday's regional spelling bee. He advances to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Runner up Sarah Reardon, seated to the right, a fifth-grader at St. Agnes School in Springfield, watches moments after whe was eliminated. 1 COLOR PHOTO
posted by Aakash at 3:18 PM
There are now only four remaining...
The
National Spelling Bee is going on, and they are nationally televising it
on ABC right now (in addition to being on ESPN yesterday, I think).
I will post something here later on about my personal experience with spelling bees...
posted by Aakash at 8:33 PM
