[Posted by Karl]

Many of you know the punchline to the joke is: Mitt Romney. (more…)

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

If you have ever owned or just loved a dog, you know something of the special bond that can exist between a human and a dog.   Now imagine on top of all the other reasons to love a dog, you depended on that dog live an ordinary life and you might have some insight into how intense the love is between a seeing eye dog and his or her master.

This Michael Hington and his dog Roselle:

I first learned of the story, here, (via here) and that is very much worth reading, but I think the most touching story is here at Mr. Hington’s own website.  Let me give you a sampling to whet your appetite:

I have the solemn obligation to inform you that my hero guide dog, Roselle, who was with me in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, passed away last evening, Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 8:52 PM.  I am sad, of course, because I will miss Roselle so very much, more than any of my other guide dogs.  I write with joy because Roselle is in a better place, no longer feeling pain, while I get to have so many fond memories of her.

He goes on to tell you about his experience on 9-11 and the distressing decline and death of the dog who saved his life that day.  As they say, read the whole thing.

And he is also selling a book about this dog here available in audio book format (although curiously, don’t seem to be available in Braille).  You can get it through Amazon too, but the ones on his site have his autograph and the “pawtograph” of Roselle.

And if you are really moved, you can donate to the Roselle’s Dream Foundation:

The purposes of the foundation include educating people about blindness, and as donations permit we shall assist blind children and later blind adults in obtaining some of the technologies which will assist them in learning and working in the world.

Which I have said before is absolutely the best way to help the handicapped, because it allows them to become independent.  To quote that earlier post:

Reagan once famously quoted the proverb that if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach him how to fish he’ll eat forever.  I would mangle that phrase as follows: if you give a paraplegic man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you make the docks wheelchair accessible he will eat forever.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

So a few weeks back was the seventh anniversary of my marriage and I got inspired to do something special.   But we also didn’t really have the opportunity to take much time and we have been gathering our savings, so it had be reasonable in cost.  So I suggested a drive to the exotic land of…

Pennsylvania.

Okay, it’s not as awesome as going to Africa, like a certain blogger around here did, but it was a nice weekend and despite my Southern accent, that is actually the state I consider to be home.  First, on Friday night we left town and drove up to Gettysburg.  That’s really not very far from me—about a two and a half hour drive.  The next morning we woke up early and went on a horseback tour of the battlefield.  That part was for the wifey, because she absolutely loves any excuse to ride a horse.

We got out there at 9 in the morning, before things got too hot.  For some reason they gave me the biggest horse I ever set eyes on, named “Stormin’ Normin.”  I swear to God it was four foot wide under the saddle.  Afterward, I could barely walk I felt so overstretched.  So yeah, I am not exactly a cowboy despite having spent some years in Texas.

And I don’t mind giving the company that did it a little free publicity.  And it truly is free publicity—I paid full price like anyone else, not even mentioning that I might write about it on a nationally read blog.  It was frankly a little pricy compared to other horse rides I had done in the past, but otherwise it was pretty much as advertised.

Later in the day, we drove over to Lancaster and had a chance to do something I had wanted to do for a long time.  Anyone who knows me long enough will learn that one of my constitutional heroes is Thaddeus Stevens.  The fact that most lay persons don’t even know his name only makes me more passionate in trying to get the word out.  This video, although containing a few inaccuracies, gives a decent summary of his life and advertises for a worthy cause, The Stevens & Smith Historic Site preservation project.

Thaddeus Stevens was a tireless advocate for equality of opportunity in life.  Primarily he dealt with the issue of racial discrimination, first being an ardent abolitionist, then after the slaves were freed being an advocate for complete social, legal and political equality of opportunity for the races.  His greatest impact on the Constitution was in being the Father of the Fourteenth Amendment.  That amendment not only banned state-based discrimination—particularly racial discrimination—but also made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.

And when I went to Lancaster, I wanted to visit his tombstone, because I had read that it was special.  This is a picture of it that my wife took.

(more…)