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Crowd Whipped Into A Frenzy. On Wednesday night, the President’s Own United States Marine Band produced a colorful and patriotic performance underscored by brass notes punctuating rapidly paced reeds and roaring percussion to pieces arranged by some of the nation’s most well known composers. The audience, housed in the Frank “Buck” Shaffer Theatre was pleased, [...]

Visalia Times-Delta columnist joins in the Red Bating fad  as though that will solve anything Farmers have no monopoly on honesty, because that character trait is rooted in the country’s founding principles. But those roots have grown strong and deep in agriculture. Farmers are wondering why honesty doesn’t have a higher priority among political representatives. [...]

Roger Doxsey, one of the earliest employees of the Hubble Space Telescope, passed away yesterday. Roger was responsible for the science operations of the Telescope both prior to and during its entire productive lifetime. As a young pup, I was involved in creating the earliest software in support of many aspects of the plan he [...]

What is the harm to the procreation purpose you outlined of allowing same-sex couples to get married? This is a remarkable article containing what is tantamount to an admission in open court that Prop 8 supporters do not believe their own rhetoric, in fact do not even understand it well enough to be able to [...]

Captain Lou, Captain Lou … Captain Lou Albano, a former professional wrestler and actor (though never a sea captain), recently passed away at the age of 76 of natural causes. In the wake of his death, searches surged on the man and his unique body of work. Still, despite his accomplishments in the wrestling world and [...]

For Immediate Release Prescribed Burning Begins in the Giant Sequoia National Monument SPRINGVILLE, CA – Sequoia National Forest personnel are starting their fall prescribed burning in the Western Divide Ranger District, Giant Sequoia National Monument this week. With the recent storm in the area, weather and smoke conditions are predicted to be favorable for burning [...]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed two gay rights bills, one honoring late activist Harvey Milk and another recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. In the last of hundreds of bill actions taken before midnight Sunday, Schwarzenegger approved the two bills by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. The governor last year vetoed the measure declaring [...]

WASHINGTON – Thousands of gay rights supporters marched Sunday from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to allow gays to serve openly in the military and work to end discrimination against gays. via Gay rights advocates march on DC, divided on Obama – Yahoo! News.

Nature vs. Nurture: The origin of bigotry should be the focus of a nature vs. nurture debate. – Kim Coco Iwamoto, Hawaii State Board of Education On the Nature of Justice: No one should be patient when it comes to their Human Rights. Justice delayed is Justice denied. Justice is Indivisible – you can not [...]

Local Tulare County Professor Professor Robin McGehee is co-Director of the event, streaming now. Porterville City Council, watch what you have wrought! RT @unitethefight: Coverage of National Equality March has started on C-SPAN!! http://ow.ly/tPlt #NEM C-SPAN Live Stream – C-SPAN C-SPAN offers gavel to gavel coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. C-SPAN also offers [...]

Chief Justice George said, “Chickens gained valuable rights in California on the same day that gay men and lesbians lost them.” Beyond budget matters, Justice George, a Republican appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991, was critical of a 2008 voter initiative that ended same-sex marriage in California. In May 2008 the Supreme Court struck [...]

In response to this, a Christian friend, and police officer, suggested privately to me that it was wrong of me to equate the fight for equality with the Civil Rights Era of the 50s and 60s,  and especially wrong to invoke the plight of Selma Alabama when examining the recent history of Porterville California and [...]

We urge the Porterville California City Council to reverse its explicit and implicit rejection of its rights-affirming 2001 Resolution in the Wake of the Patriot Act. Your September 2008 Resolution asking constituents to vote to remove existing rights from a minority of people has and is damaging the City’s valuable reputation, and has sparked a [...]

Hmm. Local filmmaker, and according to IMDB, Executive Producer on his nex project…I think Kevin Foster is going to meet the Nerd on Saturday…. Having a conversation with Kevin Foster is an interesting experience. Actually, “conversation” isn’t exactly the word that comes to mind when talking to the Three Rivers filmmaker and actor, who will [...]

“It doesn’t surprise me because ‘whatever’ is in a special class, probably,” said Michael Adams, author of “Slang: The People’s Poetry” and an associate professor of English at Indiana University. “It’s a word that — and it depends how a speaker uses it — can suggest dismissiveness.” via ‘Whatever’ so totally tops most annoying word [...]

Browse  the Library Well, actually 1 shelf from my office, and a large pile of books on the floor for which there is no shelf space. Many of the ones on the floor are pretty recent, acquired from various catch-a-catch can sources in what masquerades as bookstores here in Porterville: the local 99 cent store, [...]

Just played on Pandora – one of my favorite songs ever! Wall Of Death Lyrics Richard Thompson Let me ride on the Wall Of Death one more time Let me ride on the Wall Of Death one more time You can waste your time on the other rides This is the nearest to being alive [...]

Debate Mirrors Ongoing Porterville Controversy in Murray Park “I have been in Jewish cemeteries,” Eliasberg continued. “There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew.” From: Sharp debate at high court over cross on US land – Yahoo! News. This case mirrors a  current situation in Porterville,  one of many that our City [...]

I didn’t realize how common this sort of thing is until I set a google news alert and the stories started flowing in Here are 3 more: Plant engineer stabbed to death with sword Tempo A textile plant engineer was stabbed dead with a “katana” (samurai sword) by one of his welders inside the company [...]

One of the things people often want to know about photography at the Smithsonian is, “How many photographs do you have?” with the quick follow-up, “Have you counted all of them?” No one knows for certain, but statistical sampling suggests that there are over fifteen million pictures, in the form of prints, negatives, and digital [...]

For Immediate Release: Congregation Beit Shalom, a Jewish synagogue in Visalia, CA is Porterville Nerd’s latest happy client. “I couldn’t be more thrilled with the new site you designed for us” says Para-Rabbinic Cynthia Simonian. “The custom design is beautiful and that you can update the website is terrific. People have been finding us and [...]

I came across these images yesterday of a building where I used to live in Baltimore for 7 years. I was one of the earliest residents when the one-time factory was renovated into loft apartments. I had long heard that the factory manufactured underwear, never confirmed until yesterday when I found these photos of the [...]

OK, working on a new feature for this blog! I thought y’all might like a look into the types of books that draw my interest. I will elaborate on specific ones from time to time, and use their content as a jumping off point for various blog essays. To that extent I have added a [...]