Interestingly enough when searching for photos I found some in the US I did not realise you had lawn bowling.
Posted on 08/12/2006 12:59:12 PM PDT by Wolfstar
_ Tuesday, the President will participate in a National Security Council and Homeland Security Council briefing at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia. He will have a meeting with the counterterrorism team, attend lunch with the counterterrorism and homeland security teams, and also meet separately with the homeland security team. According to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, these are long-scheduled meetings, and are not a reaction to the recently discovered plot to blow up flights between Britain and the United States. However, the investigation will be part of their discussion.
_ Wednesday, the President will travel to York, Pennsylvania, where he will participate in a tour of Harley Davidson vehicle operations. He will also participate in a roundtable on the economy and attend a Lynn Swann for Governor reception.
_ Thursday, the President will sign HR4, the Pension Protection Act of 2006, at the White House. Later in the day he will travel to Camp David.
_ Friday, GWB will participate in a meeting with his economic advisers. He will spend Saturday at Camp David and return to the White House on Sunday, the 20th.
What other theme could there be this Saturday, just two days after the magnificent work the United Kingdom did in breaking up a monstrous terrorist plot to take down multiple airliners? Today's photo essay tells a story that will be more fully told in the years to come, but photos can be uniquely revealing at any time.
Rarely on the world stage are such close professional, personal, and consequential bonds formed between two national leaders such as the remarkable relationship between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Honorable Tony Blair, and the President of the United States, the Honorable George W. Bush. (This thread is a tribute to both of them. I place Mr. Blair's name first here only in the same sense as one puts a guest in one's home first.)
Certainly other comparable pairings occurred in the vast sweep of human history: At the birth of our country, the unlikely duo of Washington and Lafayette formed both a life-long friendship and political alliance that eventually brought France into the War for Independence on the American side. Closer to our own time, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, while perhaps never truly friends, nevertheless formed a very close alliance that towered over their era and won WWII. More recently, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher formed a life-long friendship and political alliance that defeated the Soviet Union.
Those relationships (and comparable parings going back as far as Antony and Cleopatra) certainly have make their mark on world history. But there is something quite unique about the bond between Tony Blair and George Bush. Something that is at once easy to see in these photos, and yet difficult to capture in words. The best way I can put it is that they truly appear to have become like brothers and yet more.
In their respective domestic politics, the two men could hardly be more different. We American conservatives surely would chafe under Mr. Blair's domestic policies, which would have a home in the American Democrat Party. Nor are the two men in total lock-step in international affairs. Yet, as the photos on this thread will clearly show, the two have formed a deep, comfortable friendship that is likely to last their entire lives. And, on the central issue of our times, international Islamofacist terrorism, these two men certainly have provided rock-solid world leadership on a par with that of Roosevelt and Churchill.
Unlike the definitive ending to WWII, we are not likely to know how the story of these times plays out for decades to come. Yet we do know now that these two great men -- I use great here in a sense far larger than mundane politics -- have given their all. They've tried their best and then some. They have done everything possible to protect the peoples of the United States and United Kingdom from the monsters that walk among us. Through it all, they seem to fit each other like a comfortable pair of gloves with the fingers intertwined, each giving support and strength to the other.
The "Brothers 'B' " have freed tens of millions, handing those people not a paternalistic neo-colonialism, but a chance to make or break their own futures. In other words, true freedom. Those critics who constantly wail about the Iraq "quagmire" either refuse to or genuinely can't get it: True freedom means the Iraqi people must make of their own country what they will. If they want it to be awash in blood, it will. If they want to restore it to "Garden of Eden" beauty, they can. They are free to choose. Free will. What God bequeathed to us all. This is what George W. Bush and Tony Blair have given to the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq -- a chance to exercise their own free will.
Putting their careers and, in a real sense, their lives on the line, the team of Bush and Blair have made excruciatingly hard decisions in the face vicious opposition (a couple of small examples included here so the photo essay is complete in the story it tells). After Thursday's events, at long last opinion is being written that they have been vindicated. (See this editorial from Investors Business Daily: Vindicated.)
What those freed from the yoke of tyranny by these men (and the blood of the troops they lead) will make of their opportunities, only time will tell -- and it's up to them to write the final chapters in this story.
good for you! lucky you being close to the "boss" and so many great FReep opportunities.. second only to DC chapter, me thinks
oh my.. a bowling alley that resembles a mosque.. how lucky can you get?
Interestingly enough when searching for photos I found some in the US I did not realise you had lawn bowling.
I posted this one on Tuesday......
those two thumbs-in-the-breeches shots. Is it a guy thing, or a cowboy thing?
I would say it's a guy thing. But if a Southern guy does it it's a redneck thing :)
I tend to do the opposite: put my hands in my pockets and leave the thumbs out.
Exactly that is why on threads such as the dose I refrain from commenting except to say I respect the WOT stance.
Lawn bowling was "BIG" in the golden era.. the mansions all had set ups on their grounds. I think now it is more or less a historic interest item.. but perhaps again there may be more to it than I think.
The folks I know who are bowlers are into leagues & do it regularly at lanes that are totally computerized(no more cheating..hehehehehe)
I did a fair amount growing up but was never drawn to it. Now that my back is weird, I have NO desire to stir it up with something like that
What an ordeal for your friend son glad he now home.
Our international station building does as well - see if I can find a photo of that somewhere.
Absolutely. I think we all know the Islamofacists will succeed again someday in pulling off one of their horrific mass murder plots. The odds are against the good guys, because their are millions of them spread around the world.
But if the day ever comes when the Islamofacists come up with a smarter strategic approach and they stop trying to pull of one huge attack at a time, look out! We have got to keep them contained.
Grin...I'll try, mom.
I'm sure there's more out on some database somewhere, but finding them's the challenge.
It is nice to see JR when he is in San Diego.
He lives around 300 miles or so north.
I thought it was a guy thing.
Tony Blair as redneck, LOL!
I've seen guys do it your way, too. Either way, the gesture can be quite attractive to us girls. ;-)
Thank you.
When Blair first took office, I didn't have a high opinion of him. I thought he was Clinton-light: say anything to please a crowd, but do nothing.
That changed on 9/11. On that same day (if I'm not mistaken) Blair addressed Parliament, vowing that his country would stand with ours in this fight.
Five years later, through all the dark days in between, that hasn't changed.
God bless Great Britain and Tony Blair.
I know it must be hard for you, sometimes, snugs. You handle it perfectly, though.
You're welcome. :)
Near where I was in Balboa Park today is an area for Lawn Bolling, been there for years. The folks wear white shorts and white tops. Lot of English here enjoy it.
Then the Italians here play Bocci ball.
Regarding lawn bowling I suspect that there would be a US league or local leagues somewhere possibly New England from the photos that came up at google.
You may also have a national team because it worldwide sport it may even be an Olympic sport. It is certainly a commonwealth event.
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