"The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP."

Link...

"Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found."

This made me curious regarding the existence of these sorts of tests of Knox area water supplies. Is anyone aware of these tests for Knox?

I want to thank the people who responded to me directly via my email burst last week. I know some of you are reading here as well. IF you would like to post this information in other places please just contact me first. More than likely, I will let you do it.

I'm in the process of writing a series of blogs on the superdelegates that everyone is talking about. However, while I do that, I want to give you something else to think about. It's this delegate lead that Obama has. Do you think that the elected delegates exactly represent the proportion of the vote that voted for each candidate? Do you think, for example, that if your district has 4 delegates that each one of them represents 25% of the vote? Well guess what, it doesn't work that way either. I came to this conclusion when I was analyzing my own district, the second congressional district in Tennessee. We voted greater than 50% for Hillary and somewhat less than 50% for Obama. However, we split the elected voting delegates at two each. This is the problem because each vote is represented by a single person. So, you can't split an individual delegate vote to accurately represent the popular vote. Why should Obama be represented with 50% of the vote when he clearly didn't have 50% of the vote in the second congressional district of Tennessee?

This exact situation was explained on the national blog, My Direct Democracy, better than I can explain it here. So, in the interest of avoiding plagiarism, I'm going to refer to this website called

"Candidates to split delegates (+ case study of TN)"

You all need to seriously question the "lead" that Obama is bragging about. He doesn't have as big of a lead as you might think and his lead is actually an overcompensation because the small delegate numbers within the individual congressional districts cannot be divided accurately to represent the vote.

For all you Edwards supporters out there who may have voted Edwards in the Tennessee primary, you would be interested in this as well.

So, please check out this website. If I recieve permission to copy the article here I will do it.

The Mrs. and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Fletch, the legendary photo blogger and self-proclaimed high-tech drifter. He's a super nice guy and just as peaceful and laid back in person as his photo blogging suggests.

We had breakfast at the Flagler Beach Pier Restaurant, and took a stroll around Flagler Beach and down to a nice county park on the Intercoastal Waterway. Fletch then took us a few miles further up A1A for a tour of the Washington Oaks State Park.

It's always nice to finally meet bloggers in person, especially someone who you feel like you sort of already know after five years in the blogosphere. Fletch's home base is in the Smoky Mountains and ours is in the foothills, but for some reason we had never met up before today, in Florida of all places.

Fletch and Bubba

The Museum of Appalachia has designated March as “Thank You Tennessee Month,” offering special discounts and activities for Tennessee residents. It’s a way to thank state residents for supporting the Museum through the years; to introduce the Museum to those who haven’t been here before; and to fulfill the Museum’s mission of passing the Appalachian heritage to the next generation. Details available on the Museum of Appalachia page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

Each weekend in March, special demonstrations will vary. Visitors could watch a quilting or carving demonstration, view the old-time sawmill in operation, watch a blacksmith at work, or take part in an old-fashioned spelling bee (call for demonstrations on specific days).

The Museum’s “porch musicians” will begin the 2008 season on March 1, playing traditional tunes on weekends in March and daily through the remainder of the year.

Visitors can experience “springtime in Old Appalachia:” purple martins nesting in gourd houses, the earthy smell of freshly turned gardens, the bleating of young lambs and goats playing in the fields, and the little ducklings, turkeys, guineas, and chicks chasing their mothers. Across the open meadow, strains of old-time music mingle with the fragrance of spring flowers.

Sherrie