One of my goals for the year was to revamp my personal website and incorporate my blog into that site. I also wanted to start including podcasts on my site.

I am happy to say that I have accomplished those goals. While I am still putting the finishing touches on my new website, it is now fully functional as far as my blog is concerned.

Please surf over to my website at www.melodyscalley.com for all the latest news and interviews from Melody Scalley and Politics On the Edge.

WordPress ROCKS and I have nothing but good things to say about them! I do not plan to have any additional posts to this blog.

God Bless you and yours, pray for our Nation and our leaders and keep your family close.

Melody Himel Scalley
PR & Communications
Show Host, Politics On the Edge
757.678.7200

Congress J. Randy Forbes keynote speaker at this year’s MLK breakfast honoring Courageous Leaders in our community.

  Congressman Randy Forbes will lead a moment of silence for the victims of the Tucson massacre.  Representative Forbes is a colleague of Representative Gabrielle Giffords.   An award honoring the Crew will also be presented to the Crew of the USS Nitze, a guided missile destroyer based in Norfolk, VA.

Awardees:

Crew of the USS Nitze
Trooper Sam Boone, State Police Recruiter
Donnie Wooten, Chesapeake Fire Dept. Battalion Chief 
Dr. Felix M. Kirven, Kirven Orthopedic Group
Major Tony Torres, C.O. of Patrol Op. Bureau Chesapeake Police Dept.
Diana Williams, Congressman Forbes’ Outreach Coordinator
Shepell Watkins-White, Attorney At Law
John Newhart, Chesapeake Sheriff

Tickets: Regular ~ $25; Friend ~ $35; Partner ~ $50

On sale at Harvest Company Bookstore

109 Volvo Pkwy., Chesapeake       

Platinum Sponsors:

DOMINION POWER ~ PRIORITY AUTOMOTIVE ~ JO-KELL ~

MLK BREAKFAST COMMITTEE, BISHOP E.W. JACKSON SR., CHAIRMAN

P.O. Box 15301 Chesapeake, VA 23328…757-410-7740

WEBSITE: EXODUSFAITHMINISTRIES.ORG…EMAIL: exfmn@exfmn.org

Tickets: Regular ~ $25; Friend ~ $35; Partner ~ $50

On sale at Harvest Company Bookstore

109 Volvo Pkwy., Chesapeake       

Call 757 410-7740

Platinum Sponsors:

DOMINION POWER ~ PRIORITY AUTOMOTIVE ~ JO-KELL ~

MLK BREAKFAST COMMITTEE, BISHOP E.W. JACKSON SR., CHAIRMAN

P.O. Box 15301 Chesapeake, VA 23328…757-410-7740

WEBSITE: EXODUSFAITHMINISTRIES.ORG…EMAIL: exfmn@exfmn.org

THIS BREAKFAST IS NOW SOLD OUT!

Sometimes it’s just plain hard to get MOTIVATED.   I have a number of items on my list and maybe that is my first mistake.  Of course paying attention to my faith in God is at the top of the list.  I certainly need to be better about paying attention to the path he wants me to follow instead of the trail I’m trying to blaze.

There are many things I’d like to do more consistently.  One of those items is blogging more often.  Part of accomplishing a goal is to, ‘just do it’.  Instead of setting a big goal of writing an 800 word essay on a pressing issue of the day; first, I just need to get into the habit of hitting the blog more often.   So you will, hopefully, be seeing more posts from me and sometimes you might just wonder why I bothered!   It’s just part of the process and me trying to stick to the plan.

Like many folks, I’d like to lose a few pounds.  For years I’ve been in the habit of skipping breakfast and lunch.  I have no problem just having my one cup of coffee and going until almost 7 P.M. with nothing in between.  Even years ago, when running the restaurant, I normally only ate one meal a day.   Trouble is, that one meal tends to be almost right before I go to bed — very bad for your health!

That is a hard habit to break.  Now I try to at least have something for breakfast and it’s usually oatmeal.  You don’t even have to buy, ‘instant’ oatmeal.  Did you know that?  The regular oatmeal nukes just fine in less than 2 minutes.  I like to use plain oatmeal and throw in some brown sugar with cranberries and orange zest.  Simple, quick, and it tastes good too.

One of the tricks to losing weight is get your metabolism off to a running start in the morning.  Hence, you have to ‘break’ the ‘fast’ of the night’s sleep.  On the days I have breakfast I find I am unable to skip lunch.  If I don’t eat in the morning, I don’t miss not having lunch.  But if I have breakfast, I am unable to skip lunch because I’m just too hungry.  You would think it would be the other way around!

Of course, getting more exercise is also on my list.  I am not an early riser by nature and it is even harder to convince myself to be up and out in the cold morning air to go walking at 7 A.M., but I’m getting better.  I walk the pasture with my dog and sometimes my horse follows along.  Of course, he just wants to be fed but it’s still somewhat amusing.

I’m trying to think positive and stay focused.  What are your tricks for getting motivated and sticking with your plan, even when you just can’t seem to find that motivation?

I don’t claim to know what caused the millions of fish and birds to die in various places across the globe.  Currently, I am not swallowing the MSM talking point claiming, ‘this is normal’. 

Nothing out of the ordinary here folks, move along, nothing to see here. 

Really?!

Do you believe the reasons you have heard?  Initially they blamed the dead birds on the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Beebe.  First, why haven’t I ever heard of massive numbers of birds falling out of the sky every 4^th of July and New Year’s Eve?  Second, what the heck were the birds doing flying around at midnight?  Oh, that’s right, we’re supposed to believe they were frightened by the fireworks and flew up in the air and died.  See my first point again.   That is also no explanation for the birds in LA and KY.  Then we move to other countries as far away as Sweden and 8,000 turtle doves in Italy:  “all of them having a blue tinge to their beaks, which scientists say indicates poisoning or hypoxia which is lack of oxygen”

The first story I saw was from Beebe, Arkansas where thousands of red-winged blackbirds mysteriously fell dead. http://tiny.cc/uj9jx  There is even a bird radar that has this particular flock on radar that evening. http://www.birdradar.com/?p=290   As if this wasn’t weird enough there was also an unexplained fish kill in Arkansas as well http://tiny.cc/3poe9  it extends 20 miles along the river.

Here is another story out of Louisiana about birds dying. http://tiny.cc/k26v9

So, could be the weather? http://tiny.cc/s0vu6  A tornado? Extreme cold? Why doesn’t this happen every time it gets cold?

There were more in Kentucky: http://tiny.cc/1z1bk  And if you want to use water temperature, you hit a snag when the Florida residents say, “The fish kill is unusual because it is warm, according to people who live along the creek.” http://tiny.cc/76i80

Even rare whooping cranes were found dead in Georgia http://tiny.cc/nr3ty And a flock of dead birds in TN http://tiny.cc/mogds.

It happened in Sweden too. http://tiny.cc/0on1y and the stories just keep populating http://tiny.cc/dldwy  Even New Zealand http://tiny.cc/atycn.  And now there are reports of 8,000 doves falling dead in the U.K. http://tiny.cc/xdq78.    Devil Crabs in Kent UK http://tiny.cc/pjsh3

It’s not just the birds,  in Arkansas and across the world there have been millions of dead fish. And then it hit close to home right here in the Chesapeake Bay http://tiny.cc/1cbtt supposedly due to cold water http://tiny.cc/341vx and here http://tiny.cc/td8rj.

And again, we’re being told this is not unusual http://tiny.cc/jckz5.   Aww, see; it’s happening all over the place – ergo, it must be normal.  So, you feel better now, right?

In Michigan: http://tiny.cc/q1hww, really, all the fish die every winter? I didn’t know that, did you?

Really? Last month 150 tons of Red tilapia died on farms in Viet Nam http://tiny.cc/3hexh   It’s O.K., just overcrowding and it’s only a coincidence.  How about the fish in Haiti http://tiny.cc/43fkn? (at least in Haiti they said it was, ‘abnormal numbers’)  Taiwan: http://tiny.cc/3uv8l 15 tons of dead fish in Brazil http://tiny.cc/b8a10 Even dead fish in Abergavenny http://tiny.cc/9ifpn.

Tell me, at what point does this become abnormal?  For me it was after the first time, this many events is off the charts!

If this is all so, ‘normal’; then when it happened in Canada, why did the authorities tell this man, “not to speak with the media”.  http://tiny.cc/lsyhl  Uh, huh, nothing to see here; move along.

“There’s something going on,” he said. “This is not normal.” 

This past September, this was the scene in one Louisiana bayou.  Funny, I don’t remember seeing this on any news: http://tiny.cc/qfyrv. This was also last year at a beach in Karachi, Pakistan http://tiny.cc/b26n6

So what was the cause of all the dead birds and fish in Arkansas?  Does it have anything to do with the earthquake swarm 30 miles from Beebe?  Could it have been gases released that killed both birds and fish? Is it related to the New Madrid fault? http://tiny.cc/lpia5

Did the Corexit that was used in the Gulf of Mexico to disperse the oil in the BP oilspill finally get picked up in the Gulf Stream?  But then, there are those pesky rumours that the Gulf Stream has stopped.

Did John P. Wheeler, III, a decorated US Army officer who worked in both the Reagan and Bush administrations know anything about this? He was murdered and his body was found dumped in a Delaware landfill on New Year’s Eve.  He was special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, served in the office of the Secretary of Defense, and wrote a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons.  There is rumor that he was going to blow the whistle on pending US government chemical testing.

Finally, some say it is all being caused by the HAARP project, (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program). http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/

Here is a worldwide map http://tiny.cc/ub4dh

My elderly friends are all saying, “they don’t know what it is, but they know what it isn’t; it isn’t normal“.

Update: This did not happen until a few days later in Sweden, but seems to be the same species of birds.  According to the story about 100 Jackdaws were found in the street dead or dying.  It happened also at night.  http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8370375.ab

and here a UC Davis Professor saying the deaths in Beebe, AR are not uncommon. http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=115666&provider=top  and while I agree, isolated incidents even if large in numbers do happen.  What is not normal about all of these incidents is that there were so many in so many different countries over the span of a few days.  Since again in Sweden it was the same or similar species I have to wonder if it was a virus of some type but wonder how it would have spread over different countries and why it would only affect pockets of birds and not all of the species or other birds.

Stay tuned, I’m sure there will be more to come.

It may have been just a coincidence that I noticed this ad during the healthcare debate. I had never paid attention to the tag line on that commercial before and then I realized there were quite a few ads from “The Foundation for a Better Life”.  You’ve probably seen a commercial like one below or a billboard or heard a radio spot with an inspirational message produced by the Foundation for a Better Life.  You may not have given it another thought.

 So I did some research about ‘The Foundation for a Better Life’: “The Foundation for a Better Life began as a simple idea to promote positive values. We believe that people are basically good and just need a reminder. And that the values we live by are worth more when we pass them on.”  Wikipedia has the following: “The Foundation for a Better Life is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2000 to promote positive behavioral values; it is entirely funded by Philip Anschutz, a conservative Evangelical Christian. The Foundation creates public service campaigns to communicate its values, such as honesty, caring, optimism, hard work, and helping others, in an attempt to make a difference in communities. Viewers are encouraged to step up to a higher level and to pass on positive values, with the rationale that these seemingly small examples of individuals living values-based lives may not change the world, but collectively they make a difference. The Foundation communicates its message through television, outdoor advertising, theatre, radio, and the Internet.”

One man, Philip Anschutz, is behind the entire foundation.  His foundation does not take or give any donations.  Philip Anschutz is one of top 40 wealthiest individuals in the United States.  According to the Forbes article by Christopher Helman, “The Man Behind the Curtain”, he made his fortune in oil, railroads, telecom and entertainment. I cannot help but wonder why Helman made no reference to Anschutz’ charitable contributions in his Forbes article.  (Being the inquisitive individual that I am, I did try to contact Mr. Anschutz at his offices in Colorado for an interview for my show but was unsuccessful as he does not grant interviews.)

Mr. Anschutz’ Walden Media is also behind, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia series’, and ‘Waiting for Superman‘, as well as numerous other media and entertainment ventures.

Mr. Anschutz wants you to know,  one person CAN make a difference.  Through the Foundation for a Better Life at Values.com and also through another of his foundations “Random Acts of Kindness”, he tries to spread that message.  You can find the Foundation for a Better Life on Facebook and Twitter too.

This Christmas season, and everyday throughout the coming year; remember – you can make a difference.  

Merry Christmas, Pass it on!

God Bless you and your families, today and every day.

Godspeed,

Melody Himel Scalley

God Bless our Troops, protect them, Lord and keep them safe.  Guide them in their duty that they may return home safely to their loved ones and their Country.

Nevertheless, this Thanksgiving I find myself with so much to be thankful for.  For one, I made it through this year!  I thank God for the lifetime of love from my Mom and for my wonderful friends and family.  I thank God for a great Pastor and wonderful Church family. I thank God for the people he has brought into my life and the opportunities he has shown me. I thank God that he gave Representative-elect Scott Rigell and his family the fortitude to run for Congress and the opportunity to help him in his quest.  I thank God for our President.  Without his liberal agenda our Country would have gone slowly down the same path he has shoved us down – only we would have never realized it.   I thank God for the opportunity to host my talk-radio show, Politics On the Edge, and all of the incredible people it brings into my life.  I thank God for a great horse and for my health. ;~)

 Most of all, I thank God for my faith in God and his love for me.  Without which, I would have never made it through this year. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and may God Bless you!

She has been a dynamic and well versed spokesperson over the last few years. She has proven herself and raised awareness on issues many times while the GOP apprears to sit on thier hands. She brings a style and panache to an otherwise boring establishment while also being rock solid on the issues.

In addition, I believe the GOP would be well served to actively seek individuals as well spoken as Representative Bachmann to lend a new ‘face’ to the GOP.  Perception is reality and in most ranks of the GOP the perception of a ‘good old boys’ club still remains.  That Representative Bachmann is well qualified and also happens to be a woman should be a bonus for the GOP.

Is Hensarling more qualified? I believe they may be equally qualified in most respects. Michele’s strength and appeal lie in her ability to garner media attention while also being an incredible spokesperson. It doesn’t matter how good your ideas might be, if the American public never hears about them the GOP will remain being thought of as the party of ‘NO’ instead of the party of ‘KNOW’.

If you live in the Second Congressional District of Virginia, Representative-elect Scott Rigell will be your new Representative in Congress as of January 2011. He is an honest, hard-working, true American. Regardless of whether you voted for him or not, take the time to get to know who he is, what he believes and wha…t he hopes to accomplish for not only our District, but also our Country. http://www.scottrigell.com/

In a recent interview Rep.-elect Rigell stated, “I truly believe if the other members of Congress – Republican and Democrats and a couple of independents – would live out by example true congressional reform, I think we would be better off as a country.”

Rigell said he is optimistic that the new GOP majority will enact changes to lower taxes and cut federal spending and that he will speak up if they do not.

“I will become increasingly vocal. Actively vocal,” he said, adding that he expects other new Republicans to do the same. “If I feel betrayed in any way, if I feel that I was misled or my trust wasn’t warranted, then there will be a natural… and strong reaction from me to hold them accountable – just as I’m being held accountable.”

After raising four children, accumulating a personal fortune and being involved in many community projects, Rigell said he doesn’t worry about hurting his political career if he goes against his party’s leadership.

“I have a full and complete life,” he said. “I was brought up to respect authority… but not be intimidated by them. There’s a difference.”

Read the entire story at the Virginian-Pilot.