Just wanted to let everyone know that we are back from our trip and I proposed to Stephanie on March 2nd in Venice, Italy.  She accepted :)  Date and time of the wedding are TBD, but at this point it looks like we will shoot for just after her graduation next year.  We are really excited to share the news with everyone and I hope you have a few minutes to check out our pictures from the trip at the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/74124754@N00/sets/72157594585010376/show/

When we left the airport in Saginaw the first notable thing that we saw was this house. There were crazy Christmas lights rhythmically blinking.  There was a sign that said to tune your radio to 91.9 FM at the top and bottom of the hour.  When we tuned in it became obvious that the lights were choreographed to the music.  I had seen one of these on the internet before, but never live.  I had to record it for everyone.  My camera only does 3 minutes of video in each shot, so the ending is abrupt…

…after that fiasco was done I took another shot of the shed…

…the next day we got up early and started shoveling (yeah right), we packed up our ski gear and headed for the hills…

We went to Eldora which is pretty close to Boulder (about 20 miles).  They got 24″ of fresh snow.  There wasn’t a ton of terrain, but the snow was deep and the skies were blue.  My phone had absolutely no service while we were there, judging by the weather I figured there would be no problems getting my flight scheduled for 6:30am on Friday.  When we got back to Boulder, we found out that everything was closed and my cell came back to service with 5 messages.  All of which were cancellations and Stephanie calling to tell me I needed to change my flight asap as it had been cancelled.  By the time I got in touch with my airline all of the flights out of Denver International Airport were full until the evening of Monday Dec 25th (Christmas).  I was able to score one of the last seats available on a flight Sunday night leaving Vail, Colorado err Eagle just past Vail.  It would be a 2.5 hour drive, but at least I would be home for Christmas (and maybe get another ski day in).  I am pleased to say that I called again today and a very friendly agent helped me get on a flight out of Colorado Springs which has been running flights since yesterday.  Given that the Denver airport is still a mad house and it is questionable that any flights will get out of there on time tonight I consider this a blessing…Christmas saved.

The Boulder Report is a cool new blog that was started by some friends here in Boulder, Colorado.  They review local restaurants, shops, bars, clubs, etc.  It’s pretty cool because they review places that we visit regularly like Pupusas and Amantes as well as new places like Himalayas.  Boulder is a really cool town with lots of small restaurants and shops.  A lot of them are not franchise places, so it helps to have someone give their opinion of places they have been.  I just wonder when they are going to review Lucilles?

The
Minneapolis Six Sabotage Airline Security

By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 28, 2006

At the Minneapolis airport prior to the Thanksgiving holiday on Tuesday, Nov. 21, six imams who had been attending a conference of the North American Imams Federation were handcuffed and removed from U.S. Airways Flight 300 bound for Phoenix. The clerics were escorted off the plane at the request of the pilot after passengers expressed concern about the imams’ actions in the Minneapolis-St. Paul terminal and on the plane.

According to airport spokesman Paul Hogan, the imams gathered in the boarding gate area and were “praying loudly and spouting some kind of anti-U.S. rhetoric regarding the war in Iraq and Saddam Hussein.” Three of the imams had one-way tickets and no checked luggage.

After boarding the plane, the imams sat alone in different sections of the plane, reminiscent of 9-11 hijacker tactics. Once on board, all six men requested seatbelt extensions that they clearly did not need. Upon their removal from the aircraft, the clerics were questioned by police and the FBI, but no charges were filed. When released from custody, the six Muslims denounced the action as discriminatory and called for a thorough investigation of the incident and a U.S. Airways boycott.

Further, in an attempt to publicize the “injustice” of what was probably simply good policing and intelligence practice, an interfaith “pray-in” was scheduled for Monday, Nov. 27 at Reagan International Airport in Washington, D.C. Omar Shahin, the Imam of the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT) and one of the six clerics removed form the plane, was to be joined by Imam Mahdi Bray, the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. Other participants were to include Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center of Philadelphia; Rev. Graylan Hagler of the United Church of Christ; Hillary Shelton, director of the NAACP, and other interfaith members for a “press statement, public prayer and flight departure” on U.S. Airways.

Yet, as the expected chastisement of over-zealous police and close-minded Americans begins, a more critical examination of those involved in the U.S. Airways incident might provide a different perspective. Indeed, it could lead to an understanding of why the imams and their behavior were a credible cause for alarm. Further, there may be other purposes at work here as well, namely, a campaign to undermine our focus on viable and possibly dangerous groups and populations by dismissing it as nothing more than prejudice, small-mindedness and stereotyping. In this way, our very vigilance as a nation is under attack from a form of “cultural jihad,” that seeks to use our own values against us.

In examining the Nov. 21 incident more closely, we find that among those removed, Shahin, heads a particularly intriguing organization. Founded in 1971, the ICT’s $1.5 million mosque was funded largely by the Saudi government through the North American Islamist Trust, a Saudi-backed Wahhabist group that controls a majority of the most radical mosques in
North America.

According to Washington-based terrorist expert Rita Katz, the Islamic Center of Tucson included what was “basically the first cell of Al Qaeda in the United States.” The connections between Al Qaeda and the ICT include Wael Hamza Jalaidan, a former ICT president, believed to be an Al Qaeda founder, and Hani Hanjour, who attended the mosque while a student at the

University of Arizona and who later flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on 9/11. Wadih El-Hage, a personal assistant to terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden, was active with the ICT in the late 1980’s where he is alleged to have established an Al Qaeda support network, according to the FBI. In 2001, El Hage was convicted by a federal judge in New York of planning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Besides nurturing ICT activists who have gone on to become bone fide terrorists, the Islamic Center of Tucson has played a prominent role in raising money for terrorist front groups. The ICT raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury in 2001 for alleged ties to terrorist groups. Following the treasury action, ICT Imam Omar Shahin continued to defend the organization and its “charitable” intent. Further,  Shahin had been a representative of KindHearts, an organization that made contributions to Hamas-related groups and was also shut down by the U.S. government for alleged connections to terrorist causes. 

The response to the U.S. Airways incident from the imams and Muslim organizations nationwide was intensely dramatic, reeking of political grandstanding. They denounced the actions taken by the authorities, labeling it an example of pervasive discrimination now faced by Muslims in America. Muslim spokesmen dubbed the response a police action and claimed the imams were singled out for religious and ethnic reasons as part of a pervasive “flying while Muslim” mindset. ICT imam Shahin ignored the loud, anti-U.S. rhetoric expressed by the imams and insisted they were simply praying. He criticized America, saying, “If up to now they don’t know about prayers, this is a real problem.”

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also blamed American attitudes, when he said, “We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam.”

This, from the head of an organization which is a terrorist-supporting front group for Hamas that has raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, which was designated a terrorist organization by both the European Union and the United States before it was shut down.

This level of outrage and outcry from the Muslim community raises serious questions about the U.S. Airways incident itself. Could this have been a staged event to call attention to “unfair” profiling of Muslim passengers?

Surely, Americans are conscious of the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists…but most terrorists are Muslims. The Nov. 21 incident appears to be uniquely crafted to criticize American attitudes and security policies, arising from and created in response to everyday realities.

The six imams who were removed from U.S. Airways Flight 300 just happened to be among those attending a conference for the newly elected first Muslim Congressman in America, Keith (Hakim Mohammed) Ellison of Minnesota. Ellison, who recently spoke at a CAIR fundraiser, has vowed to criminalize Muslim profiling and has demanded to talk with U.S. Airways’ officials. CAIR has called for congressional hearings to investigate incidents of “flying while Muslim” and has worked with incoming Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-MI, to draft a resolution that gives Muslims special civil rights protections. Conyers is co-sponsoring the “End Racial Profiling Act” with incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They have vowed to end racial profiling, limit the reach of the Patriot Act and facilitate the immigration process.

“Since September 11th, many Muslim Americans have been subjected to searches at airports and other locations based upon their religion and national origin, without any credible information linking individuals to criminal conduct,” Pelosi has said. “Racial and religious profiling is fundamentally un-American and we must make it illegal.”

Democrats who are demanding changes to legislation that was enacted to protect our country from a repeat of 9/11 must be asked what is illegal about profiling individuals from groups “of interest” in order to protect the public and prevent terrorist attacks. What is “fundamentally un-American” about exercising vigilance with people of the same racial and religious background as the 9/11 hijackers? What could be more protective of the civil rights of Americans than shielding them from those pledged to kill them? Since when are the rights of terrorists more important than the safety and security of the American public?

In the interest of pursuing stated goals to Islamicize America, Muslims feel free to demand special accommodations for their religious beliefs and cultural practices. They enjoy First Amendment protections and freely criticize American society on our university campuses and in mosques and madrassas. They invoke hate speech against opponents and classify them as religious infidels.

Americans, however, are not free to scrutinize Muslims. Those who do are immediately suspect and censured when they question, criticize or monitor Muslim actions, no matter how insidious and suspicious. Muslims in America have conveniently reset the bar of tolerance to be defined as the unquestioned acceptance of Islam, its prophet, and its practices. If we fail to continue to question, scrutinize and speak out, then they will have succeeded in their campaign of cultural jihad and rendered homeland security unable to deal with real jihad.

OK, so the rock and roll poster was pretty easy but who knows their web 2.0 trivia?  Here is another poster (not as cryptic) that incorporates all of the new businesses that are going to change your life ;)  Check it out….

When traveling to Venice, the water taxi from the airport appears to be the easiest way to go.  I found this route map which seems to make sense and then I overlayed it with google maps to see exactly where I needed to go.  We will still need to walk about 15 minutes from the taxi stop, but I think that is about the best we can do.

 For those of you looking for something to test your Rock and Roll knowledge, have a stab at this.  Each of the scenes is a different band name…whitesnake, rolling stones, etc.  Send me a comment when you spot one.  Check out the source for a bigger image:

The ceremonial annual kick off to ski season is nearly upon us.  This year on November 11th at the Boulder Theatre  Warren Miller’s film ‘Off the Grid’ will show…and I will be there. 

I have gone every year since moving to Colorado and have dragged as many people as possible along with me each time.  This year Orlando and Pauline are coming again and Adam and Allison (freshly minted Coloradoans) will join us too.  I also invited pretty much everyone from the office, but I’m not sure if anyone got tickets or will go. 

For those of you that aren’t familiar with his films, they are an annual series of films dating back nearly 50 years.  Warren narrates them himself telling the story of each adventure the skiers take throughout the film.  Skiers and non-skiers alike usually find the stories very entertaining and engaging.  The skiing is outstanding and you get swag with your ticket price.  If the show comes to a theatre near you I would definitely recommend checking it out…

We got our first major weather event yesterday and today just in time to disrupt Dad’s plans in Colorado springs. Depending on where you were it looks like there was between 5 and 20 inches. The further south or west the more snow fell. Thats great news for the ski resorts. Keystone announced today that they would open a week earlier on November 3rd. Hooray!