Howard Ludlow Sr Labor Day 1960 photo 294075 740 250 right The Akai GX 280D SS Reel to Reel player recorder I purchased for digitizing my grandfather s tapes photo photo 294076 740 250 right One of the reel to reel tape boxes from the 50s 60s photo When my grandfather died in 2005 he left behind a handful of reel to reel audio tapes all of which my father kept Of course my father also had no way of listening to these tapes nor do most people I purchased an old reel to reel machine for a few hundred dollars and went about digitizing the old reels One of them contained a speech my grandfather had prepared for Labor Day of 1960 It was a speech to his Catholic Parish regarding the general lack of responsibility permeating between union officials and management leaders Sadly the topic is even more relevant today than it was 52 years ago when he spoke it Unfortunately for preservation sake his recording reel must have been broken because the rate of recording speed was variably inconsistent across the entire speech This resulted in the beginning of the tape sounding very high pitched like a chipmunk and gradually slowing to his normal voice You can listen to the em unedited em MP3 at the bottom of this post to hear what I mean I ve spoken with many audio experts online and all seem to agree the problem must have resided with the original recording device In the end and with the help of a href http audacity sourceforge net Audacity a I was painstakingly able to reconstruct my grandfather s voice to match what it should have sounded like The last minute or so of the tape had been unaffected and thus is his actual voice I used that as the baseline for comparison That all said there may be certain sections that sound slightly off This is because I not only had to reconstruct the pitch but also the speed at which the words were spoken it was a pretty challenging project I have a few other reels and am trying to reconstruct them in my spare time They re VERY difficult because they contain singing who knows of what His full speech is transcribed below the video iframe width 519 height 292 src http www youtube com embed 8vFEGYbpL7Y frameborder 0 allowfullscreen iframe em This speech is being specially recorded Irene Ludlow Your Excellency Right Reverend Monsignori Reverend Fathers ladies and gentlemen This morning I had the pleasure of joining with you at Holy Mass as part of our celebration of Labor Day To many people such a religious beginning for what is simply a very popular American holiday may appear to be rather strange They know that a href http en wikipedia org wiki Peter_J _McGuire Peter McGuire a suggested the holiday in 1882 as a demonstration of fraternity and the harbinger of a better age when labor shall be best honored and well rewarded Today labor has that better age and it has been both honored and rewarded Indeed it enjoys every right and privilege that legal procedures can provide But we as Catholics know that while Labor Day as a legal holiday quite properly commemorates the attainment of labor s rights that these same rights and privileges call forth equal duties and responsibilities to the rest of society I think that it is almost as if labor s rights and labor s responsibilities were two sides of the same coin And unfortunately we do not have to look very far to find ample evidence that the responsibility side of the coin is too often turned under so that only the side which emphasizes labor s rights seems to be visible Perhaps the working man the employer and the union official all need to be reminded of the ethical requirement that demands just actions and morally correct decisions and not merely popular answers or victory over the opposition at any price What of the union leader who insists upon a course of action during a labor dispute even though he knows in his conscience that his demands are unreasonable He will attempt to explain away his actions on the grounds that he has been elected by the membership and must not offend the union rank and file for fear of losing his office Tell me is he a politician looking for votes or is he truly a leader who recognizes his responsibility to set an example by acting in a reasonable and just manner And what of the union leader who fears to lead and who looks to someone else to take his irons out of the fire for him He is the type of official who hesitates to rule against one of his members during a grievance hearing and who sends the dispute to arbitration Of course he knows from the evidence already in his possession that the union cannot hope to obtain a favorable award But the union s money can be spent the member can be given false hope and when the decision is finally handed down this type of union leader is in the clear the arbitrator is the villain who is to blame Speaking of arbitration it should be noted that this particular form of dispute settlement has increased tremendously in popularity in New Jersey in recent years In all fairness I believe it should be recognized that this increase in the arbitration caseload shows that our labor leaders are constantly striving to improve their service to the union membership and this is a fine example of responsible leadership on their part However there are some irresponsible aspects of this which also need a few minutes of our attention Our nation s largest railroad system was brought to a halt last week even though two separate arbitrators had made settlement proposals Now I do not propose to question the merits of the union s position in the strike but you cannot very well have a binding type of collective bargaining action like arbitration which can be ignored at will Nor is management altogether innocent of wrongdoing when arbitration abuses are discussed How many companies throw almost every grievance into arbitration in order to weaken the union s treasuries For many industrial relations managers the word responsibility exists only in the dictionary and the social implications of their jobs are never allowed to overshadow the legal status given to them by their corporations They may control the job destinies of thousands of their fellow men but they never forget the source of their paychecks And when there are sweetheart contracts or other illegal relationships with dishonest unions the public is often lead to believe that only labor is at fault and we are asked to conveniently forget that there are two sides to that coin also That the dishonest union leader cannot succeed without his management counterpart All of this talk of responsibility reminds me of the article written several years ago by one of our American Bishops on what he called the Philosophy of Excuse The author s contention was that far too many Americans occupy their time trying to think up suitable reasons for not doing what they are supposed to instead of carrying out their duties in accordance with their vocations in life Unfortunately I believe that this Philosophy of Excuse permeates far too large a segment of those who are engaged with labor management relations The working man who justifies his support of dishonest labor leaders on the grounds that they take pretty good care of him at contract time The management man who always opposes anything asked by the union because he feels that that is the role that he is supposed to play The union official who asks the impossible at a bargaining session because he believes that his members will appreciate his show of strength All are guilty of adhering to the Philosophy of Excuse instead of acting in a proper and responsible manner In our own state we have the unique situation whereby the AFL and CIO have been unable to join forces as on the national level Questions of dues leadership jurisdiction all enter into the arguments against the proposed merger Good reasons I am sure but isn t there at least some of that excuse philosophy also present Many of you are leaders within the labor movement and you may feel that I have been too harsh in my remarks this morning On the other hand management representatives may accuse me of emphasizing a labor position too much In this connection I am reminded of the story told of the management official who had had a very bad day in dealing with his union at a bargaining session Everything had gone in favor of the union and he had received quite a pushing around from labor s representatives To make matters worse on the way home from his unsuccessful negotiations with the union our management man was hit by a car and was taken to a hospital to be treated Even then he had problems because the operating room was occupied at the time by a woman patient and the injured management official had to wait in the hall outside Being angry and in pain and as our union friends would say acting like a true management man our management friend began to demand some treatment He told the nurse to get the woman patient out of the operating room so that he could be treated for his injuries But I m sorry sir said the nurse But we cannot get the woman out of there You see she is in labor In labor screamed the management man All day I ve gotten that kind of argument and now even at the hospital That s the trouble today It s everything for labor and nothing for management Well as we celebrate this Labor Day of 1960 we do not believe that it is everything for either labor or management As Catholics we recognize the rights of both sides and we are happy to pay tribute to those who have struggled to improve the fraternity of labor that was spoken of by Peter McGuire seventy eight years ago But also as Catholics we recognize the other size of that coin The side devoted to responsibility and we urge the representatives of both labor and management to have led the fight for economic success in America to battle with equal vigor along the ethical path to true social justice Thank you for the privilege of speaking to you on this beautiful Labor Day morning And thank you doll my toothless little friend em Full speech audio unedited a href files music 1960 09 04_HowardLudlow_LaborDay_Unedited mp3 1960 09 04_HowardLudlow_LaborDay_Unedited mp3 a 11 0mb Full speech audio edited a href files music 1960 09 04_HowardLudlow_LaborDay_Edited mp3 1960 09 04_HowardLudlow_LaborDay_Edited mp3 a 9 1mb

Singapore Master of the Hot Crazy Matrix Singapore is quite possibly the single nicest city that I have ever seen in my life It s so well organized It is unbelievably clean The transit is amazing It s busy and vibrant but not so crowded that you hate walking down the street Even the weather while definitely hot and humid is not nearly as bad as the rest of Southeast Asia it has the convenience of a constant ocean breeze Everything seems to be perfectly ordered People seem to be very happy and friendly It s phenomenally successful in the world market It s also a fascinating to consider that the city is essentially the entire country You can cross the entire city country in about an hour Visible to the north is Malaysia and visible to the south is Indonesia It is truly an amazing city period photo 642092 650776 0 center The famed Singapore Helix bridge photo br style clear both photo 641830 650776 0 center The flags of Singapore photo br style clear both My Uber driver picked me up at the airport and it took us about an hour to get to my hotel due to Friday night traffic Naturally we sparked up a conversation and I let him lead it So after writing all of those lovely things how come the bulk of his thoughts regarding Singapore were him interjecting time and again Fuck Singapore Fuck this place Fuck this fucking country I didn t prompt him for any of that or even get into anything regarding the government I would never do that being unfamiliar with a country s customs Singapore is a land of rules and they are harsh rules While the Japanese seem to have managed immaculately clean and orderly cities while still exercising a fair bit of personal freedom Singapore took a very different route There is no carrot in sight and a whole lot of sticks behind you In fact many people probably remember the famous case of an American who vandalized a car literally getting the stick If you don t know that story it happened in 1994 when I was a freshman in high school An American by the name of Michael Fay was found guilty of vandalizing vehicles in Singapore Allegedly he was actually stealing street signs but the vandalism charge was a better one to be found guilty of who knows but he pleaded guilty to the vandalism charges and was sentenced to six strokes of the cane He was forced to bend over a bar had his hands and feet restrained with irons and was publicly beaten six times over his back with a rattan cane This is one of the methods of punishment administered in both Malaysia and Singapore I think the most interesting part of this story making its way to America is that when most westerners hear or remember the story they immediately assume that Singapore is just a backwards country with brutal legal standards maybe not unlike being told people have their hands cut off for stealing in Saudi Arabia or something similar Regarding Singapore though this simply could not be further from the truth Singapore is all of the things that I wrote above It s very much a first world country with a wonderful and astute population of educated people They just also happen to have some very strict standards that they force people to live to Among those standards is that it s illegal to chew gum It s illegal to spit at least in public Smoking restrictions are extremely strict There are those laws that most countries have but Singapore just happens to take very seriously such as littering jaywalking and etc The city is lined with signs instructing you what you cannot do and in most cases what happens if you re caught doing whatever you re told not to do The fines you ll pay are generally spelled out rather clearly Fishing in an unauthorized spot for example will net you an instant 3000 SD fine about 2 200 USD Smoking in an unauthorized spot even outside will net you an instant 500 SD fine about 365 USD photo 641994 650776 0 center Looking up at the ceiling in a Hindu temple photo br style clear both photo 641976 650776 0 center Outside of the Masjid Sultan Mosque photo br style clear both Strongest of all of these rules however is with respect to drugs While marijuana is classified differently in this case all other drugs including ecstasy cocaine methamphetamine opium and heroin are punishable by death That s right death If you are caught with even a very small amount of any of these drugs though I believe there IS actually a minimum weight it s just very small you will face execution The country reminds its citizens of this in many different ways Not only will you be executed but you will be hanged So my Uber driver is not a fan of his country because as a person who doesn t make a ton of money he is in the class of people that simply cannot pay their way out of the fines or even escape death His illustration of the country is the same thing that happens in all countries that issue fines for relatively trivial matters If you have the money it really doesn t matter to you since it s a regressive system If you don t you re in a lot of trouble again because it s a regressive system For him smoking in the wrong place or getting caught randomly spitting could financially devastate him That all said the system does seem to work The country seems to maintain its order It truly is clean because nobody is going to litter the penalties are just too steep for most people and they don t mess around with enforcement If you get caught you are going to be found guilty and held accountable of the offense So that s the spin to Singapore that I found most interesting It s a gorgeous clean vibrant fast paced metropolis with a wonderful mix of people races and languages It s just not a place where you want to break the law the stick is just too harsh in most every case I should also mention that Singapore has some of the best food in all of Southeast Asia Since the country is such a blend of cultures albeit predominantly Chinese there are specific subcultures all over the city that have set up Hawker Centers areas that sell street food on the cheap Chinatown Little India etc all have some of the most amazing food I ve ever had and it s all relatively cheap probably 3 6 SGD photo 641709 650776 0 center Wan Shan and I eating some BBQ stingray and an assortment of vegetables photo br style clear both photo 641787 650776 0 center Picking out the best durian for my first go at eating one While most westerners think that they smell terribly and don t care for the taste I found the smell appealing and the taste delicious photo br style clear both

The Monte Montgomery Guitar When Tisa and I had only been dating for about 2 or 3 months I wanted to get her a cool present for her upcoming birthday on the 16th of April She and I were frequently going to see a href http www montemontgomery com Monte Montgomery a play at the local bars in Austin and she had made some mention to me that she would like to learn to play the guitar My idea was then to buy her a relatively inexpensive acoustic guitar and have Monte sign it for her strong Getting the Guitar strong About a week earlier to this particular trip I went onto eBay and found a red Johnson 6 string acoustic for about 150 00 or so There was an available Buy it Now option and since I didn t have much time I went ahead and did it For whatever reason my eBay account was giving me trouble so I actually had a href http www guezuraga org Dave Guezuraga a my roommate at the time purchase the guitar for me I quickly reimbursed him for it and he got the star on his eBay account strong Contacting Monte strong I went on to a href http www montemontgomery com Monte s website a and found an email address that I figured I could use to contact his people regarding having the guitar signed A day or two went by and I still had not heard back from them Getting slightly anxious about this I decided that if I did not hear back from them I would just have to go to one of Monte s concerts and have him sign it I figured he couldn t turn me down The only problem was that his only upcoming concert was in Dallas on the 5th of April 2002 and that was going to be a bit of a drive on my part strong My Letter to Monte Montgomery strong div style border 1px solid c0c0c0 margin bottom 20px background color fafafa padding 20px From Kevin Ludlow lt ludlow mail utexas edu gt To lt monteray satx rr com gt Sent Monday April 01 2002 2 53 PM Subject upcoming show with a question Dear Sir or Madam I am hoping that this letter can find its way to Monte Montgomery as this was the only email address that I could find on the website So Monte My name is Kevin Ludlow and I live in Austin where I do get to see your shows from time to time I try to go whenever possible because while I m sure you can do without more flattering from people your music is incredible and your guitar method is something I ve never seen before To the point I have a small favor that I would like to ask of you I have been playing guitar for quite some time and my girlfriend has been wanting me to teach her For her upcoming birthday this April 16 I have bought her a pretty inexpensive but nice practice guitar so she has something to learn on Unfortuantly I couldnt afford anything too grand My favor to ask is if you could sign personalize the guitar I m sure that you have lots of number one fans but I would say that she is definately one of them and I think she would cherish the very thought of you signing it Also I would hope it would inspire her to learn to play as she admires your guitar playing a great deal If this is at all possible I would happily pay you for the trouble or do whatever necessary to make it possible I might not normally go through such a length do to something but she is definately worth that and much more to me anyways I understand that you have a show coming up in Dallas on the 5th and I happily would drive up to Dallas I d love to see the show and perhaps I could see you afterwards I am just hoping that the guitar gets here before then as I ordered it online So it would mean a great deal to me and I guarantee her too if you could do this I hope to hear from you and email is great but my cell is 512 xxx xxxx Thank you so much for your time Kevin Ludlow div strong style clear both Getting the Signature strong photo 1155 48 0 right The signed guitar sitting in my living room photo I asked my good friend Preston Graham if he would like to join me in going to a concert in Dallas and of course explained why I needed to go up there Being the great guy that he is he happily agreed to go with me So around 4pm on the 5th I picked him up in my truck and we drove the 3 or so hours up North to Dallas I guess we got there a bit too early for nightlife but it allowed me to get a spot directly in front of the club where Monte was playing that night The Gypsy Tea Room With some time to kill Preston and I walked across the street from the club and had a beer or two at another bar Afterwards we proceeded to walk back over to the club and wait in line We were there for about 10 minutes or so when Tisa called me on my cell There was clearly a loud ruckus from the people standing around and I had to make up some story about me being out with some friends or the like I didn t want her to know that I was in Dallas going to a concert I think it was a fair white lie When we finally got inside of the Gypsy Tea Room the opening band was just about to go on Preston and I had a few more beers and were just sitting around talking when I happened to notice Monte up at the bar I quickly ran up to him and explained to him that I had just bought my girlfriend an acoustic guitar and would appreciate it if he could sign it He told me no problem and that he would do it after the show This was a relief though now we had to sit through the entire show Not that I didn t want to see Monte play or anything like that but he wasn t going on until around 11pm or so and we still had to drive back to Austin Needless to say we watched the entire show drank some beers and all in all had a great time As soon as the show was over I asked Monte once more just to confirm and he told me to go and get the guitar from my car I brought it back to him and he was more than happy to sign it personally to Tisa He asked me what I wanted it to read and I told him just to write whatever he wanted so long as it was addressed to Tisa He didn t argue and signed it To Tisa Peace and Love Monte Montgomery Preston and I left the Tea Room sometime around 2 30 3 00am and of course still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us It was more than exhausting and I think Preston tried to stay awake with me as long as possible but eventually fell asleep in the car We got home some time around 6am strong style clear both My Response from Monte Montgomery strong Even though I managed to get the guitar signed it took awhile for that email that I originally wrote to get back to me The return letter actually came from Monte s manager Ray Rodriguez but apparently he actually spoke with Monte regarding the guitar Thankfully it wasn t of much concern by this time Here is the email that was sent back to me regarding the guitar being signed div style border 1px solid c0c0c0 margin bottom 20px background color fafafa padding 20px From Sun Apr 14 11 45 59 2002 From RayRod lt monteray satx rr com gt To Kevin Ludlow lt ludlow mail utexas edu gt Subject Re upcoming show with a question Date Sun 14 Apr 2002 10 45 35 0500 Kevin Sorry for the late reply I spoke to Monte about this and he d be glad to sign the guitar So bring it to any one of his shows and just ask him to sign it Best Regards Ray Rodriguez Manager Monte Montgomery Monte Ray Enterprises www montemontgomery com div strong style clear both Giving the Guitar to Tisa strong I had to hold onto the guitar for 10 solid days without letting her know anything about it much less that I had just been to Dallas the night before and gone to a Monte concert On her birthday she came over after going out with one of her friends and I was anxious to give her the guitar I presented it to her and of course she was incredibly excited that I had given her a guitar in the first place The funny thing was she thought that I had signed it I explained to her that it was personally signed by Monte Montgomery just for her I had to explain the entire story but I think she was more than amazed with the effort made div style border 1px solid c0c0c0 margin bottom 20px background color fafafa padding 20px strong ardoty yahoo com strong br Wow That is so cool I can t believe you went to all that trouble But I can see you had a good time doing it I am a huge M M fan and have driven between Dallas and Austin to see gigs myself Tisa a a lucky girl div div style border 1px solid c0c0c0 margin bottom 20px background color fafafa padding 20px strong zorgux caramail com strong br bonjour je cherche la tablature de romeo and juliet par monte montgomery Pourriez vous m eacute crire pour savoir si vous l aviez et si possible pourriez vous me l envoyer a mon adresse mail je vous remercie a bientot div

Homeless WiFi The Kony of SXSW photo 255924 740 0 right photo If you re not familiar with a href http homelesshotspots org this project a yet an ad agency called a href http www bartleboglehegarty com global BBH a has equipped 14 homeless people in Austin with 4G data enabled devices They ve asked their participants to roam the South by Southwest festival offering free WiFi to people The stunt has attracted a host of negative publicity People have been suggesting it is unethical immoral and exploitative I even read one article claiming that the agency is essentially commoditizing generally read as enslaving the homeless Unfortunately these claims couldn t be further from the truth In fact the only unethical component of this whole matter is how quick the media has been to present a new bandwagon for the uninformed to jump on A few points to consider Firstly this is not a bad financial deal All of the individuals are being paid a minimum stipend of 50 per day 20 of which is up front If that number seems low keep in mind that they re not exactly doing work rather they re just instructed to go about their day people will find them The company is also suggesting that people provide donations for the service the suggested rate seems to be about 2 00 for 15 minutes of access In addition to their stipend the homeless keep all of the donations that they re given That adds up pretty quickly at a festival like SXSW Secondly they re entrusted and invited to participate in a worldwide event I m not a social worker but I have to assume that when you entrust somebody with an expensive piece of hardware one they could easily run off with provide them with a festival t shirt bearing their name and give them a legitimate reason to interact with the general population this is possibly the greatest offer many have seen in some time It provides a presumably disparaging person with opportunity something we all hope for Thirdly I also have to assume that the fourteen people selected for this project are fairly competent individuals That is to say there is a certain level of communication and responsibility necessary for this project to be successful even if it is minimal It seems that the ad agency would be somewhat selective in their process of choosing who was eligible to participate This would suggest that the participants are of pretty sound mind Which brings me to my only real problem with the outcries Where is the consistency with the argument I see homeless individuals working all sorts of jobs around Austin and I ve never read of people being lambasted for hiring them I ve watched them distribute leaflets hold business signs sell papers work parking lots and on and on So I m curious where the outcries are for homeless people being paid to hold Liquidation Sale signs on street corners Is there some sort of line in the sand that we cross once the job takes on a more technical nature Unfortunately we re seeing these sorts of baseless and even counter productive outcries occur all of the time through the internet In my opinion they re exactly what turn legitimate problems into fashionable blips There are no doubt cases whereby homeless people have been exploited for their services For example about a decade ago Indecline Films started putting out a series called a href http en wikipedia org wiki Bumfights Bumfights a The clear difference is that they sought drunken and probably mentally unstable individuals and paid them to incite violence against one another There is a clear common sense distinction between these types of cases and it s just sad that people are so willing to rally against anything even when there are numerous and obvious benefits If people really wanted to help the homeless they could trivially forgo a href https cart sxsw com products show product_code reg plat spending 1 395 on their SXSW badges a and instead donate that directly to a homeless person or any number of local shelters But of course we all know that s never going to happen My take of these matters is simple If people are unwilling to put real action ahead of empty talk then perhaps they should at very least stop speaking for others Especially when those others are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves

State Representative District 46 Filing photo 315901 740 300 right Caption Here photo I m running for the Texas House of Representatives in District 46 Here is what I have to say about it strong A Little Background strong As most all of my friends know I have been highly engaged in politics since my early 20s This escalated around the age of 23 when I began traveling the world more freely and exposed myself to different cultures and ideals It continued into my later 20s as I became more and more frustrated with our destructive 2 party system and sought after 3rd party candidates and dissidents within the major parties Nader Paul Kucinich amongst others At 33 I published my first political science book a href http www amazon com American Healthcare Moderate Kevin Ludlow dp 1480069442 American Healthcare A Moderate Approach a ALMOST a NY Times Best Seller and also began a political science podcast with a friend of mine called the a href http www jkpod com JKPodcast a Sadly it s been on hiatus since the summer due to a new baby but we ll fire it up again soon And so it stands to reason that at the ripe young age of 34 u a href http www lptexas org texas house representatives I have officially filed for candidacy in the State of Texas a u I am running for the Texas House of Representatives District 46 where I live strong Qualify what this means strong Unless I am able to find momentum in my local community to back my candidacy I have no intention of attempting to run an actual campaign This is not because I am uninterested in it but rather that politics heavily favors the two party system heavily favors incumbents and my opponent is part of both I am historically much more of a political activist than a politician But having said that and since I am eligible to run for office it sounds like an amazing opportunity and I will take it very seriously State district 46 a href http www fyi legis state tx us fyiwebdocs PDF house dist46 m1 pdf essentially east and northeast Austin a has been represented by a href http www house state tx us members member page district 46 Dawnna Dukes a for as long as I can remember Personally speaking she seems like an absolutely lovely woman I have been in her company in numerous events over the years and been introduced at least twice But this coming year I will have my name along side hers on the ballot Though I loathe both the Democrats and Republicans she is a Democrat her legislative efforts in the House have appeared mostly humanitarian in nature Granted this is really more of a surface analysis If you dig deeper you ll likely uncover that she s not been particularly helpful to the LGBT community of Austin she supports drug penalties despite such laws heavily weighing against most of her district and I even found that she would support a state income tax There s also an occasional weird one that I come across in Dawnna s case is was the support of corporal punishment in school I find myself asking what year is this strong How did this all come about strong Several months back the a href http www lptexas org Libertarian Party of Texas a reached out to political activists and asked if any would consider a run for office I responded that I would About two months ago I received a call asking if I was serious about running I maintained that I was Finally about four weeks ago I received a call asking if I was em REALLY em serious about running I took a small step back I explained how I had no proven ability to run a campaign namely as I do not have proper funding for such a thing I also explained that my personal political interests have tended towards Austin and National politics I have been interested in making a run for a Congressional seat Unfortunately the party explained to me that given the number of people seeking a national seat I should start with the state level and they would be willing to back me I welcomed the new idea strong What is the goal strong The Libertarian Party is attempting to fill Texas ballots with people who are well versed in the goals and ideals of libertarianism as a philosophy For the most part this appeals to me greatly and I am happy to get involved I should note here that I am NOT a Tea Party activist and for the most part do NOT agree with the policies of the Tea Party This extends into general women s rights LGBT rights abortion positions I m very pro choice though do understand and respect the views of anti abortionists and immigration policies I inherently support open borders I am also an agnostic atheist and this carries with me dearly into my political views I fully support God just not with respect to legislation of the masses Representative Dukes is a well regarded state politician and it would be foolish to think I could just strut into the ring and unseat her she is good at being a politician That said if I am able to find supporters in the local area I will gladly run as best a campaign I possibly can And should that result in a victory somewhere down the road I will happily take her seat in the House Chambers Beyond that and with all things in my life I intend to have a great deal of fun with the process I m sure I will learn a thing or two about the process of a state campaign from more of the inside out In the next few days I will put together a short document that outlines my political views on major issues If nothing else I am very consistent in my views and am happy to have them documented publicly most already are Having now gotten all of the reality check out of the way strong a href http www ludlow2014 com vote Ludlow 2014 a strong

Sporting Clays Another little mini adventure that my good friend Dave took me on while I was in Kansas City staying with him was some sporting clay shooting We went to this really amazing course out by Lenexa Kansas with Dave s neighbor and friend Scott as well as some of Scott s friends a husband and wife duo While I had not gone sport shooting in quite some time having frequently done it in the past with my other good friend Grant I wound up doing a littler better than I thought I would The course was a relatively standard one albeit had a great variance between the normal holes designated in blue and the advanced holes designated in red We stuck to the blue path While Neo may have been conflicted we certainly we not It was the right way to go I don t think I would have done much better with my own shotgun but I am extremely partial to 20 gauge shotguns and both Dave and Scott only had 12 gauges After shooting 100 shots over 12 different blinds I wound up with a 59 meaning I had 41 misses over the course Dave did phenomenally well with 85 only 15 missed shots while his neighbor friend Scott shot an impressive 92 with just 8 misses overall It s always such am amazing sight to shoot with people who are so much better than myself as it makes me work a little harder at it Both Dave and Scott had a lot of good pointers to share with me that I d actually starting getting much better as the round went on After we wrapped up the shooting Dave and Scott took me to a delicious El Salvador restaurant unsurprisingly called El Salvadore o I have to say it was some of the best Central American food that I ve had in a long time

A seated bearded man wears a suit with a pink flower attached to the lapel. The man has a beard. He has color eyes. He is wearing a suit. He has a flower attached to his suit. He is wearing a purple shirt and it sitting at a couch looking away from the camera. A white gentleman with a scruffy beard is wearing a black suit with a purple shirt and pink carnation attached above the jackets pocket. a man with beard sitting in an armchair, pink carnation in his pocket, door, winter, purple shirt,bangs, green eyes, dark suit jacket, grey blanket on the back of the armchair, bright room, A young man looks at something. Wearing black suit. A rose flower fitted on the suit. Sitting in a couch. Brown wooden door is seen behind. A young man with a thick brown beard taking a picture while wearing a black suit with a pink flower pinned to the lapel. There is a white man with beautiful bright blue eyes wearing a suit with a violet flower sticking out of the pocket, sitting in a chair looking up at someone. The man wearing

a woman wearing a denim jacket is sitting on a brown couch with a white dog. Cute young girl caressing a white dog. She wears blue denim shirt. Dog is white in color with brown spots. She is sitting on a brown chair.Hair is brown. A girl sitting on brown couch is playing with a dog and laughing while looking at camera, the dog is hugging her The woman is grabbing one of the dog's leg. The dog is upside down on the couch. She smiles and is looking right at the camera. She caucasian and is blonde. The dog has black spots and brown on him, he has mostly white hair and it seems like he is sticking his tongue out. one woman with brown hair and wearing a jacket sitting on a sofa is playing with the dog who is hugging her. A young white woman with long hair is wearing a denim jacket, sitting on a brown couch, and is taking a picture with a large white and brown spotted dog who is licking her. The woman wearing a blue shirt smiling and caring a dog with her and sitting on a sofa and looking at the other people. A dog

a man and woman enjoying themselves with drinks in a glass A woman in a yellow shirt smiles behind a cool peach looking drink. A white man with a lot of facial hair sips his drink from a silver straw. A man with beard and a blonde girl are seated with cocktails in front of them, and the girl seems to be happy and smiling. There a two couple. The man has black hair and blue t-shirt. The lady has blonde hair and a yellow shirt. They are drinking some kind of drink with ice, both have different drinks and they are drinking out of a straw while sitting down. A young blonde woman in a yellow sleeveless top and young man with a thick brown beard enjoying brightly colored drinks while relaxing in the back yard. A beautiful lady and a young bearded man enjoying spicy, sweet and lemon enriched juice from cute transparent glasses with ice cubes in an open pub. The scenario is enhanced with the trees and lights. The man and woman recline in front of the green and white fence as the sun goes down, sipping on ice cold cot

A couple poses for an adorably candid photograph in what looks like a library. This Caucasian man in the pink collared shirt and this Caucasian woman in the purple tank top are making silly faces in front of the camera. a man with a woman. the man is with an open mouth, the woman is taking out her tongue making a funny face. both of them have bangs. Behind of them there is a large library full of books. the man is wearing a plaid shirt. There is a library where the young couple seemed with very happy. The woman looking very beautiful with blond hair and a suitable spectacles and the man also handsome. a man with beard and a woman with glasses are making fun by showing her tongue out and there are books in the background. A dapper young man with brown hair and beard wearing a plaid printed button up shirt taking a silly picture with a light haired woman wearing glasses and sticking out her tongue. The man and woman wearing glasses laughing and making funny posses wearing colorful dresses in a room looking