My Life with an Irish Wolfhound - CuChulainn Deo Irie

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You know, some things just happen in life when the stars align and the Gods decide that maybe it is time to make things interesting for some lonely human. Little did I know it might be me. After years of fruitless searching for an Irish Wolfhound wherever I was traveling from coast to coast, I was about to give up.



Now I admit my standards might be a little excessive. But I had studied everything I could find about these dogs over the years although I was surprised to discover just how little was available. I mean this is one of the oldest breeds of dog in existence and can be traced back at least 3,500 years to ancient Ireland. This dog was the stuff of Irish legends.



"I will give thee a dog which I got in Ireland.
He is huge of limb, and for a follower equal to an able man.
Moreover, he hath a man’s wit and will bark at thine enemies but never at thy friends.
And he will see by each man’s face whether he be ill or well disposed to thee.
And he will lay down his life for thee.”
(from "The Icelandic Saga of Nial”)



According to Irish Wolfhound websites, The dog of kings and the king of dogs, the Irish wolfhound is a living symbol of the Celtic people. A dog from the time of heroes, it is entwined in Irish lore and legend. The tallest of dogs, the noble Wolfhound is an enormous, rough-coated shaggy-browed hound, built on galloping lines and is a member of the Greyhound family and combines their great speed with enormous power. Even as he lies by a modern hearth or romps about an enclosed yard, gallops in a meadow or along a beach, it is easy to imagine him as the prominent figure he once was in the feudal life of the Middle Ages. He was coveted for his hunting prowess, particularly in the pursuit of wolf. With the disappearance from Ireland of these animals, and the excessive exportation of the dwindling ranks of Wolfhound, the breed was allowed to become almost extinct.



Wolfhounds were, indeed, so highly thought of that only kings, warriors, nobles and bards were legally allowed to own them. They were the companions of the regal, and housed themselves alongside them. But their function was far from ornate - they were considered the guardians of their noble masters, and they were indeed bred to hunt wolves and capture wolves, and to go in for the kill. It is not surprising to note that there are no known wolves in Ireland today.



A dog of nobility, an Irish wolfhound was so valued in the 1700s that a condemned man could buy his life with one. Once upon a time the Irish Wolfhounds were used to fight wild animals in the arenas of imperial Rome. They were known to have defeated lions in battle.

Queen Elizabeth was given a pair of Wolfhounds in the middle of her reign and Lord Cromwell, in 1652, was so concerned about the exportation of Wolfhounds from Ireland and the rapidly vanishing breed that he banned any further exporting. By the later part of the 19th Century, Irish wolfhounds very nearly became extinct. An Irish wolfhound was the first pure-bred dog in the New World; one traveled with Columbus on his fourth voyage.



In spite of its size, the Irish wolfhound is absolutely trustworthy with children. All this information plus the fact my mother's side of the family was from Ireland was enough to convince me that I needed one to complete my portfolio of canine sidekicks which by this time was pretty extensive.

I determined that I must find one whose parents were natives of Ireland in order to make certain I was getting close to the original breed since cross breeding and limited numbers of wolfhounds tended to weaken the breed after too many generations away from Ireland.



Now I studied the breed standards and fully expected to find what is known as the "super breed" which refers to a throwback to the ancient lineage. These are standards that come closer to the ancient breed than modern dogs. I was not disappointed.

AKC MEET THE BREEDS®: Irish Wolfhound
An Irish Wolfhound must be "of great size and commanding appearance." He has a large, muscular greyhound-like shape, and he is the tallest of dogs, but not the heaviest. A superb athlete and an endurance runner, an old Irish proverb describes him perfectly: "Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked." The breed’s recognized colors are gray, brindle, red, black, pure white, fawn and others.

Irish Wolfhound Breed Standard
General Appearance
Of great size and commanding appearance, the Irish Wolfhound is remarkable in combining power and swiftness with keen sight. The largest and tallest of the galloping hounds, in general type he is a rough-coated, Greyhound-like breed; very muscular, strong though gracefully built; movements easy and active; head and neck carried high, the tail carried with an upward sweep with a slight curve towards the extremity. The minimum height and weight of dogs should be 32 inches and 120 pounds; of bitches, 30 inches and 105 pounds; these to apply only to hounds over 18 months of age. Anything below this should be debarred from competition. Great size, including height at shoulder and proportionate length of body, is the desideratum to be aimed at, and it is desired to firmly establish a race that shall average from 32 to 34 inches in dogs, showing the requisite power, activity, courage and symmetry.

How could you not want to experience sharing a home with an ancient member of Irish royalty? These gentle giants were the stuff of legends and at long last my search for the perfect Irish Wolfhound with genetic ties directly to Ireland came to a conclusion in northern Maryland.



When I moved to Maryland a few years back I discovered a breeder in Northern Maryland with puppies meeting the exact qualities I required. A male, first generation removed from Ireland and with all the classic standards the American Kennel Club expected in a show quality dog though I had no expectation of ever showing him.

Unfortunately the breeder said all pups were taken and she would call me when the next litter came along. I was disappointed having come so close for the first time in several years. But a week later she called me back and said the buyer of one from Georgia had been diagnosed with cancer and could no longer devote the attention to the dog necessary so she cancelled her order. He was mine if I wanted him.



When I got to the breeder two pups were left to pick up, a male and female. They were the cutest, most innocent looking little wolfhounds resting in their cage. About 7 weeks old, there was absolutely nothing about this little guy that foretold of what was to come. So I sat down and waited to see if he would come to me. The male made the first move then along came the female. But the male crawled up on me and parked himself. I was surprised at how small and delicate it seemed at seven weeks old compared to the vision I had of the full sized warrior.



So I walked away with the little critter and on the journey home he started whimpering, maybe he wasn't quite ready for adventures. By the second night away from mamma he was sleeping with me curled in my arms or sprawled across the pillow above my head. It was quite cute. Six years later he is still sleeping with me although now I am the smaller one, but that gets a little ahead of the story.



His first week he inhaled some strong flea and tick spray and literally died, seizing up and suddenly stopped breathing with no heartbeat. I grabbed the little guy and ran into the bathtub and shoved him under freezing cold water and somehow the shock jolted him back to life.



It was then I decided he was a fighter, having already faced death and come back so I named him CuChulainn Deo Irie, Gaelic for CuChulainn, warrior spirit of Ireland. Since no one in Coltons Point spoke Gaelic I just called him Coolin, or Cu for short.



I had no idea what I was getting into with this unusual little creature. He grew in spurts, in about six week intervals. He would eat like a horse during that time, grow a couple of inches and a lot of pounds, then stop growing for six weeks. Every time his color seemed to change.



I waited a year to start exercising him as I knew large breed dogs face their most dangerous period the first year when most people over-exercise them when their bones and joints are still in fluid. Then we took two walks a day of approximately 2 miles total. I knew he was allergic to flea treatment because of his near death experience so I had to find some natural way to fight fleas and ticks since he did like to romp through the woods and along the shore.



After two trips he refused to go to the vet and I had to find a most unusual vet in Southern Maryland who would make house calls. Dr. Guyther and her Vet-A-Pet traveling show became one of Coolin's great friends and admirers. The doc treated horses so I knew she could handle Coolin.



As he continued to stretch out at an alarming pace a few things became obvious. First, he could never be left in a kennel because he simply would not fit in a cage. His idea of a cage based on my raising him was the living room. Second, he did not like dog food as he did not consider himself a dog but a far superior being.



From day one he insisted on sleeping with me and for the first year it was on the bed. It was the genetic breeding, I could tell. Slowly but surely a host of mysterious habits came from Coolin as he grew into his royalty genetics. Once he got too big for the bed he would only lie down on his own bed. Since he liked to hang out with people some of the time and stay out on a porch there had to be two beds, one inside and one out, with about five comforters each.



This was a most peculiar dog. He like having a light cover on him even though he had a fur coat. Then there were the pillows. He insisted on a pile of pillows. These I moved from bed to bed. When he moved to the bed he would arrange them under his head or push them to the side so he could lie on them.



As he grew and surpassed the breed standards I began to wonder. You see, AKC said the Wolfhound male should get about 32-34 inches high and weigh an average of 125 pounds. Occasionally a genetic throwback would come along more like the ancient breed and could weigh up to 175 pounds. They also said he should stop growing at 4 years old.

Coolin shattered the breed standards. He now stands nearly 39 inches at the shoulder, and measures over 7 feet 3 inches from nose to tail. As for the weight, with no fat whatsoever he still weighs in at about 250 pounds. That makes him much more like the ancient super breed.



Concerning the things no one told me about Wolfhounds, where do I start? No one mentioned the two beds, or that he liked them clean. If the top blankets and pillow cases were not regularly cleaned he refused to lie down on the bed. And my little Lord demanded he get baths, toweled and brushed weekly. What in the hell was that all about? I never owned a dog that demanded baths.



Then there was the eating. As for the diet, forget it. What I ate he ate unless he ate better. Hands down peanut butter sandwiches are his favorite, along with sushi, salads, hamburgers, hot dogs and on and on. He prefers variety, as in a different meat each day. Some days he refuses to eat what I serve and will not touch the food until he gets what he wants. He just won't have a bad chicken day.



For breakfast his Irish breeding makes him love crescent rolls. After breads or rolls he expects a small bowl of milk to wash down the food. He may be the slowest eater I've ever seen. One small bite at a time and chew it 25 times, then swallow. Then wash the legs and feet and eventually he will get back to the food. Half hour meals are the norm.

When he eats, which he does lying down, the food must be no closer than 3 inches from him. Too close and he moves away. Too far away and he waits for you to move it closer. When he eats half the plate he expects it to be rotated so the food is close to him. Don't rotate and he don't eat. If he is getting several different things for his meal don't dare mix them. I may give him meat, wet dog food, dry dog food and bread for a meal. He gets up and changes position before he will eat the next course of his meal.

Are you beginning to get the idea that Coolin thought he was moving in with the Rockefellers or Rothschilds, not me?

A people person, Coolin wanted to hang out with the humans but did not like being touched unless he gave you permission. If people approached him and didn't follow directions a low growl would rumble across the room. It would stop anyone.

Acutely aware of his size and the hazards of being huge, Coolin was very careful. He would not walk on wood floors. Of course my whole house has wood floors so he only went where I put rugs. His long, gangly legs kept him from attempting to walk up flights of steps. He knew better. He would never enter a room he could not safely back out of.

Most astonishing of all, in spite of the fact he looked down on most tabletops, he never knocked anything off a table or knocked over any furniture. And we never caught him stealing food off the table. We had been warned the Wolfhound was entirely capable of snatching a steak or roast but only when you were not looking. He didn't.

Coolin has a variety of voices he uses to communicate with you. There are different tones and sounds when he wants food, wants out, wants you to come play with him, and wants to be left alone. If you study them you develop a whole new way of communicating with animals. His mysterious eyes are also used to communicate. If I ask him what he wants his head continues facing you but he shifts his eyes to what he wants, like the water bowl if it is empty, or dirty. He might want his towels put down over his bed when coming in from the rain. If he is hurt he will show me where so I can fix him.



Other dogs are inferior creatures to Master Cu but he did make friends with an abandoned Irish Setter named Holly and shared his home, food, bed and masters with Holly. He is the most unselfish animal you will meet. He also saved birds that were hurt and brought them to me to fix. When lying on the front porch little birds would fearlessly hop around him as his eyes followed them picking up crumbs of his food.



He really does not like being around small dogs as he is afraid of hurting them accidently, they move too fast. Nor does he like being around small children for the same reason. If a Wolfhound is raised with the children they are exceptional guardians and playmates.



The Irish Wolfhound is a sensitive, meaning they have a mystical sense of the character of a person. It was why they were favorites of the ancient Druids and were often used as Demon chasers to protect Celtic villages from evil. If he senses evil or something wrong with someone he will not let the person near you.



Mostly they are gentle giants, incredible companions, lovable bears and amazing athletes. Loyalty is inherent, protecting you is a given, nursing you when you are sick or hurt is automatic and knowing how to read your every emotion is commonplace. You could not find a better friend. But you better be ready to provide your Little Lord with royal service. They do not stay little for long.

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Bob Dylan Releases Traditional (Almost) Christmas Album

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I thought I entered the Twlight Zone the other day when I heard the first cut from the new and first Bob Dylan Christmas album. I grew up in the state next to where Dylan came from, in Iowa, and he became quite the legend for a lot of reasons. But traditional Christmas was not one of them.



It's true he drifted in and out of his Jewish faith and even got into Christianity at one point, including performing before Pope John Paul II. But Dylan is Dylan and one never knew what to expect next. When you hear him singing Latin on this album you will simply not believe it.



Typical Dylan, every cent in royalty goes to feeding the homeless of the world. So for Dylan fans and those who whould be Dylan fans, I have included an interesting review of the album and two music videos of the songs. If you double click on the music videos it will enlarge the video. You may not believe your eyes and ears.



Bob Dylan: Christmas in the Heart

Bob Dylan and carols is a cocktail that really shouldn't work – especially not in Latin. But Richard Williams finds himself seduced by a punk-Dickensian Santa

Richard Williams
Guardian.co.uk
Thursday 10 December 2009 15.08 GMT

Quirky or turkey? ... Dylan's first Christmas album represents yet another erratic departure



There used to be a civilised convention among reviewers – perhaps there still is, in some sectors of the arts – that performances given for the benefit of charity were exempt from the normal process of criticism. They could be reported, and admired when appropriate, but not dissected or evaluated in the usual way. Since the proceeds from the sales of Bob Dylan's Christmas album will be devoted to feeding homeless people in every territory in which it is released, the critic is clearly not entitled to consider beginning his review with the celebrated single-line exclamation employed by Greil Marcus to open his Rolling Stone review of Dylan's Self Portrait back in 1970: "What is this shit?"



A similar reaction might be the normal, unthinking reponse to the news that the author of A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll has chosen to offer for public enjoyment his versions of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, The First Noel, O Little Town of Bethlehem and Adeste Fideles/O Come, All Ye Faithful, its first verse sung in Latin, with characteristic inflections: "Ven-EE-tay ador-ay-MOOSE." Yet here they are, along with their secular equivalents such as The Little Drummer Boy, Winter Wonderland and Mel Torme's The Christmas Song ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire/ Jack Frost nipping at your nose …"), in arrangements calculated not to disturb the seasonal family gathering.

Getting on for half a century ago, no one painstakingly learning the chords to the young troubadour's anti-establishment broadsides could have imagined such an outcome. But ever since the abrupt move back to a simpler method of musical presentation with John Wesley Harding in 1968, Dylan's erratic progress has invited his listeners to poke away behind the surfaces of his apparently enigmatic behaviour. Perhaps the clue here is that "Jack Frost" has been the alias used in the production credits of his studio albums for the past dozen years, since Time Out of Mind. Or perhaps not. This time, perhaps enigmas and clues are beside the point.


Using his own excellent band and a group of singers whose mellifluous responses to his own rheumy growl hark back to the sounds of the Andrews Sisters, Dylan finds an appropriate setting for each of these Christmas chestnuts, from the reverent to the jovial. The blend of idioms is familiar from Love and Theft and Modern Times, in which he brought together elements of country, bluegrass and a sort of genteel salon music to provide a background to his renewed fondness for old-fashioned crooning.


The result is polished without being glib, and a sympathetic listener may find it addictive. The musicians Dylan brought to Britain earlier this year, augmented by David Hildalgo of Los Lobos on accordion, mandolin, violin and guitar, and the great Chicago session guitarist Phil Upchurch, whose earliest successes predate Dylan's own, distinguish themselves on even the most unpromising material. According to Hildalgo, quoted in the current issue of Uncut magazine, the sessions were both impromptu and highly concentrated: Dylan and the musicians listened to various recordings of each of the selections, and then decided on the best approach. It seems safe to say, however, that no one has ever tackled O Come All Ye Faithful quite like this.

Is he sincere? Does he mean it? Is this an ageing entertainer's Christmas gift to his grandchildren, or he is winding us up, knowing that at some time in the future he will repudiate it, as he did Self Portrait? When he sings with a perfectly straight face about the nativity ("Where meek souls will receive him/ Still the dear Christ enters in," for example), is it the product of a resurgence of his interest in Christianity, or simply intended to reflect a generic sense of holidaytime goodwill? You can only chuckle at his ability to keep us guessing when you turn past the conventional cover painting of a horse-drawn carriage speeding through snowdrifts to find a photograph of Bettie Page, the famous cheesecake model, dressed up in a Santa outfit complete with suspenders and bulging bra.



Sceptics should go to YouTube and watch the Must Be Santa video clip. This rollicking song, featuring a rattled-out list of US presidents, is set to a high-kicking shuffle rhythm, decorated by Hidalgo's exuberant Tex-Mex accordion, and delivered by Dylan as a sort of punk-Dickensian Father Christmas from amid the incipient mayhem of a slightly out-of-hand Christmas Eve party. More fun than Renaldo and Clara, for sure.

This is his Christmas, and he seems to want us to enjoy it. But when the grandchildren have left and the decorations have come down in the Dylan household, perhaps he can be persuaded to take a well-deserved break from recording and get on with the really important job of finishing Chronicles Vol 2.

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Sarah Palin Ends Tour on Tonight Show

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Sarah Palin completed her naitonal book tour with an appearance on the Tonight Show where Star Trek's William Shatner has been reading excerpts from Palin's book, Going Rogue. She returned the favor with a good natured reading from Shatner's biography to the delight of the crowd.



Then it was off to Alaska and two final stops at military bbases with the troops. Palin signed copies of her book during closed events at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage and Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks.



With well over one million copies sold and on her way to being the most successful political author of all time Palin finally gets to rest from the whirlwind tour and many national media stops.



This is what Sarah had to say on the Tonight Show as reported by Fox News.





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Obama Stuns Nobel Peace Audience - Becomes President at Last

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The Nobel Peace Prize committee in Oslo, Norway, the center of the universe for socialists, pacifists and USA bashers, took for granted that newly elected President Obama was in their back pocket when he was elected. Truth be told, his first 10 months in office saw a lot of reinforcement for their decision as Obama was constantly apologizing for America's past, blaming the Bush administration for everything, acting like he would meet whatever demands our enemies needed, and bemoaning the horrors of war.


So it was they gave him the Nobel Peace Prize. Yesterday he picked up the prize and stunned the international media with his address. In the process he took a giant leap forward in maturing as President of the United States, an evolution I have written about on a number of occasions. It was almost as if Obama finally realized he was the one who got elected, not his Chicago gang, not his army of special interests demanding favors and not the liberal elitists who thought they controlled him.


Yes, Barack Obama for the first time spoke as the representative of all the people of America and in the process he did the last thing the Nobels and nobles expected, he stood up for America. Obama turned a platform for world whiners into a proud and defining moment for America. There were no apologies, no defense of America, no bashing of Bush by this president.


He presented a sober and realistic overview of war, acknowledged that evil does exist in the world and it cannot be tolerated. Then he gave a ringing portrayal of America as the only nation who spent the last six decades carrying the burden of the world in providing security for everyone else, with our blood and our bullets. Combining his knowledge of theology and history with his constitutional background, for the first time he acted like, well, the leader of the free world and commander in chief of America.

The pacifists were stunned in Europe. So were the liberal Democrats and socialists back here at home. For a moment at least, Obama was the president for all the people of America and his ringing defense of the war in Afghanistan against world terrorism evoked memories of Reagan. All major Republicans and conservatives and even Sarah Palin acknowledged support and appreciation for what he said. Yes, there is such a thing as a "moral and just" war.


With a little luck Obama can come back and use the same independence and leadership to get control of Congress, get Wall Street regulated and punished, get meaningful health care reform instead of the Democratic nonsense being sold as reform, make green legislation beneficial to the public and not just the fat cat insiders, and maybe even get his Chicago gang to change their strong arm tactics and use a little conversation and compromise to govern our nation.

Much remains to be done and only he can take command from his underlings and congressional allies and make the deals necessary for our Republic to again dominate the world. People in America have shown they are disappointed with politicians and fed up with Wall Street. The only change we want right now is in the nasty rhetoric and senseless wheel spinning in Washington.


They should just shut up, let the nation heal itself, and then they can try and help. Fix the problems. We don't need new laws, radical new programs and a spiraling deficit. We have what we need. Just fix it! Until then, the record is clear. For the past year politicians, Wall Street and special interests have done everything possible to rip off America. They need to be put in their place.

Keep it up Mr. President...

What and Where in the World is the Coltons Point Times?

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It is a question I get occasionally and since there are so many new readers I want to address it. We are the only newspaper in the oldest continuously lived in chartered settlement in the colonial United States. Yes, older than Jamestown, older than Plymouth and older than St. Mary's City, places most people think of as the oldest. If you are not familiar with US history, the three places I mentioned all ceased to exist by the 1690's. That means we existed 142 years before our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and went to war with England.


St. Clements Island just offshore from Coltons Point was the landing site for 321 colonists on two tiny ships, the Ark and the Dove, in 1634 and the area has been lived in ever since. It is also the first place in the world with religious freedom as the first English charter guaranteed religious toleration. We are also the site of the first landing of Roman Catholics, first Mass performed in the colonies, first Jesuit priests and the first colony to live peacefully with the Native Americans. If that isn't enough we are the site where the first relic from the True Cross of Jesus came to America and miracles were performed with it.


We are a quiet village of about 250 people on the Potomac River just before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay where the Potomac is seven miles wide. Though we are only 60 miles from Washington, DC there are no governments, no police, no traffic lights, no street lights, no sidewalks, no water, no sewer, no gas lines, no churches, no city hall, no fire department, no sirens, no bureaucrats of any kind and not much of anything in the way of commercial development. We value freedom and independence above all else. This year we celebrated our 375th anniversary although there was no ceremony.


None of that has anything to do with the Coltons Point Times (CPT) except I happen to live here. Before I found myself in Coltons Point about eight years ago I had lived in Iowa, Arizona, Nebraska, California, Washington, DC, Virginia, New Jersey and Kentucky. In addition I had worked several years in New York City and Nashville.


I've done so many things my resume defies belief including newspaper reporting, NYC advertising, politics (32 federal, state and local campaigns), working for presidents, governors, senators, congressmen, mayors, inventing green energy products in the 1970's (or before Gore), working for Democrats, Republicans and Independents, in computer security, writing (newspaper, books and songs), recording music and cancer research to name a few things.


Perhaps that is why the CPT seems to cover a lot of national and international issues. It may also explain why an online newspaper in one of the smallest villages in the USA has had over 110,000 readers this year. The last time I checked we had readers from 96 different nations, all 50 states and Washington, DC.


In the United States after Maryland our top 25 states by rank include California, Texas, New York, Florida, Virginia, Louisiana, Washington, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Tennessee, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Indiana.


International CPT readers by rank are the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, India, Spain, Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, Brazil, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Turkey, Norway, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Malaysia and South Africa along with 71 other nations.


The top cities where we are read outside of Maryland include St. Catharine's, Ontario Canada #1, Mountain View, CA (Silicon Valley), Washington, DC, London, England, NYC, Alexandria, VA, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Houston, Bridgeport, CT, Nashville, Chicago and Paris, France.


Our mission is to tell the truth, be an independent voice, share interesting material with our readers and help keep you informed with the inside information on government, politics, science, health, housing, music and a whole bunch of other stuff. When the world stage gets boring we offer a little history and local color that may be of interest. We want to keep the news makers from politicians to news media, Wall Street to the Middle East honest and that has been a lot of work lately.


You may have noticed we are about the last newspaper on the internet to NOT allow those frustrating ads, banners, pop ups, video ads and all the other things created to track and annoy you. We do not require you to register because you have enough people already spying on you. I encourage you to check through our online archives as many stories are updated over time such as the House of Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and personalities like Obama.


Our national and international news distribution service reports that CPT articles hold the top three spots for most popular political stories of the year, four of the top ten political stories, seven of the top 20 political stories, and one CPT article on the Rothschilds and international finance is the 14th most viewed article of all time in all categories. They distribute hundreds of articles a day.


Reader comments are encouraged and responses will be given if needed. You can even ask me to email you privately in your comment and I will not post your email for the world to see. I have responded in numerous languages although the translations might be a little rough.


Since we do not accept advertising or do our own advertising people find us through searches for issues and images as we often have pretty entertaining photos and cartoons with our stories. You can set up an RSS news feed to your home page to get the latest headlines on articles I post.


Word of mouth is our strongest means of exposure and we would greatly appreciate it if you would tell your friends, family and associates about us and give them the site. Most search engines like Google can easily locate us by searching for the Coltons Point Times or you can click on: http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/ to directly connect.


We appreciate having you in our family and hope you check in for the latest news often. Thank you.

Jim Putnam, Publisher

Al Gore versus Sarah Palin - The Great Hot Air Debate

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America's most prominent conservationists squared off this week over Climategate and the future of global warming as Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, yes that same paper who made it a goal of wrecking her career, about the flaws with global warming and in particular the new disclosures that key scientists were making up statistics to prove humans cause global warming.

Of course Al Gore is the celebrated former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has continued to fool the news media as even today Andrea Mitchell, the NBC reporter who seems to think Gore can do no wrong and Palin no right, admiringly referred to Gore in an interview as former vice president and current environmentalist.



Has Andrea even read the flurry of articles about how Gore hijacked the global warming movement along with Goldman Sachs and turned it into a cash cow for lining his own pockets? Just this week Gore was booed out of a meeting in Ohio when he began pontificating about the cap and trade bill that will make him a billionaire. He's already a multi-millionaire as he made $100 million since losing the presidential race a couple of elections ago.

Fact is Mr. Gore may be the biggest loser ever for president as he converted his loss into being the $100 million environmental king to the liberals of the world. Did he tell the environmentalists and conservationists out on the front lines that he created a couple of investment funds that control the stock of most emerging green companies and stands to make billions of dollars if Obama can get the cap and trade bill through congress?



Seems the Jolly Green Giant didn't like Sarah Palin taking aim at his cherished movement and the lying scientists who made him rich so thanks to Andrea Mitchell who never misses a chance to make Palin look bad, she reported Gore blasted back calling Palin a "Denier" and claiming evidence over the past 20 years proves the Earth is warming.



The new Sarah Palin has a grasp of issues heretofore unknown to leftist liberals like Mr. Gore, she actually stands up for what she believes and has no intention of taking it from opportunists like Big Al. Politico's Andy Barr reported her response this morning.

From Politico

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hit back at former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday for calling her a global warming “denier.”

Speaking to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday, Gore criticized an op-ed Palin wrote for the Washington Post calling on President Barack Obama to boycott the global climate change conference in Copenhagen.

“The deniers are persisting in an era of unreality. The entire North Polar ice cap is disappearing before our eyes,” Gore said. “What do they think is happening?”

“It's a principle in physics,” Gore said of climate change. “It's like gravity, it exists.”



Palin took to her Facebook page late Wednesday to respond to Gore.

“Perhaps he’s right. Climate change is like gravity – a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it,” Palin wrote. “However, he’s wrong in calling me a ‘denier.’ As I noted in my op-ed above and in my original Facebook post on Climategate, I have never denied the existence of climate change. I just don’t think we can primarily blame man’s activities for the earth’s cyclical weather changes.”

Palin then turned her response to the so-called “Climategate” story as evidence that scientific findings are “flawed, falsified, or inconclusive.”



“Former Vice President Gore also claimed today that the scientific community has worked on this issue for 20 years, and therefore it is settled science,” Palin wrote. “Well, the Climategate scandal involves the leading experts in this field, and if Climategate is proof of the larger method used over the past 20 years, then Vice President Gore seriously needs to consider that their findings are flawed, falsified, or inconclusive.”

“Vice President Gore, the Climategate scandal exists,” she added. “You might even say that it’s sort of like gravity: you simply can’t deny it.”

End of Politico article.



Since when did Al Gore find it necessary to attack Sarah Palin. Well, did you know Andrea Mitchell's environmentalist also owns his own television network? Did you know he also flies a private jet wherever he goes? A private jet, some environmentalist.

Gore's TV network has been viciously attacking Sarah Palin since going on the air recently as it seems she stands as a threat to expose his secret Wall Street partnerships and his Fat Cat status. They even have a cartoon about Palin called "The Stupid Virus".

In the Al Gore cartoon about Palin they call Sarah a Twilf, to demonstrate how Gore has a grasp of the Urban Dictionary texting age. What does it mean you might ask? Well probably not what you might expect from our former vice president and presidential hopeful.

According to the Urban Dictionary, Twift mean "one who farts in the bathtub and bites the bubbles." Other Internet sources claim it means a "disgraceful, sexually-charged epithet". That is the mindset of our former VP and nation's environmentalist.

When the liberal media complains about the hostile and downright nasty political environment in current politics they must be talking about the Al Gore's of the world and their juvenile, even mean spirited attacks on people like Sarah Palin who are just trying to defend the people with no voice in Washington.

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