Three Old Dogs Minus One

We buried Corky yesterday, he died just after noon in his sleep. Corky was an old schnauzer dog, how old, no one really knows. Our estimate was 16 but that could have been off by as much as two or three years. The first thing that any of us know about Corky was that he showed up at Mrs. Taylor's house in the Memphis TN. area. He was already a grown dog at that time. No owners ever came to claim him so Mrs. Taylor took him in. Mrs. Taylor was a customer of my uncle who was a veterinarian in the Memphis area at that time. When she got too old to care for Corky, she asked my uncle to find him a home. My folks had recently lost their schnauzer dog Buck to cancer so my uncle offered them Corky. At first my dad was reluctant but my mom said they would take him and she would take care of him. My dad had loved Buck and I think he did not feel like another dog could ever take his place. Soon, Corky had won him over. I'm am pretty sure that he loved Corky as much as Buck and quite possibly more. One of his favorite expression when he was talking about Corky was "That little boy, he's a little man."

My dad had a stroke in 2001 followed by several other strokes that eventually left him bed ridden. He passed away in July of 2002. By that time, my mom had taken over as Corky's caretaker. She had an accident in November of 2002 and died, and Corky came to stay with me. He was still young enough when he came to live with me that he could do all the things dogs do. He barked, jumped on the furniture and played with toys. The subsequent years since 2002 had taken their toll. By the time he passed away yesterday, he was blind, deaf, stiff with arthritis and slept most of the time. I know some folks would have had him put to sleep a long time ago but with all his problems, he never gave any indications that he was suffering. Up until the last month, he had maintained a fairly steady routine of eating and sleeping and he would still nozzle up to you when you rubbed him between his ears. On his last vet checkup in November, his doctor was concerned with his weight loss. I tried changing his diet and feeding him more but he just didn't seem to have a good appetite. Also over the years he had developed several food allergies and was limited in what kinds of food he could eat. I did manage to get him to gain back a couple of pounds but after that he just went down hill. He had a good day Monday, the best day he had had in the last six months but then Tuesday morning, he just wanted to sleep. I got him up and he drank some water and then went right back to sleep. His breathing was shallow and slow. Just after noon he stopped breathing completely. Linda and I took him down to Slickhill and buried him with the other dogs and cats. He will be missed.

35 Inconvenient Truths

If you are like me and have always found man-made climate change a bit implausible then you should find the paper 35 Inconvenient Truths by Lord Christopher Monckton very interesting.

Or if you are someone who has been convinced that man-made climate change is real, you should find 35 Inconvenient Truths very enlightening.

And finally, if you are among that group of people who see man-made climate change as the basis of a new age religion then don't waste your time reading 35 Inconvenient Truths . You will just think it blasphemous.

Is Nullification Our Last Best Hope?

In this article Michael Boldin talks about various states using nullification to fight over reaching federal laws. Has our societal pendulum finally begun to swing back in the direction of sanity?

Telling It Like It Is

This lady tells it like it is:

Alabama Poutine

Last year, when I drove the Alaska Highway to Alaska and back, I spent several days in Canada. I had been to Canada one other time in my life in 1962, but that was just to Kenora, Ontario and I didn't remember all that much about it, besides, a lot has changed everywhere since 1962 so I really did not know what to expect.

I found that Canada is an interesting country with interesting people. They may share a continent with us, but they certainly have their own culture. Virtually everywhere I went, the people were very nice and fairly laid back. In a lot of ways, they reminded me of folks from the southeastern USA.

Every since I got back from my trip, I have been kind of keeping up with Canada. I've been watching CBC newscasts via internet, reading articles about Canada and things Canadian in the Wikipedia and this year I even listened to the Grey Cup. I have learned alot and come across some interesting things. Recently I discovered a uniquely Canadian food, poutine. For those of you that are like I was and have never heard of poutine, it is a dish that was developed in the province of Quebec and seems to have spread throughout Canada. Basically it is fried potatoes sprinkled with fresh cheese curd and topped with gravy.

Now no one likes fried potatoes any better than I do and gravy is a staple in my household, but cheese curd? If anybody makes cheese in Alabama, I don't know about it. Fortunately my daughter is a cheese guru so I called her up out in Texas and asked her where I might get some fresh cheese curd. She said that the closest place that she knew of to me was Sweetwater Tennessee but that I could probably get the same general effect from fresh mozzarella and that I should be able to find that at the Publix down the street. Sure enough I went to Publix and there was the fresh mozzarella, See, I told you she was a cheese guru.

Anyway, I brought the mozzarella home and diced up some of it to about the size of the cheese curd that I had seen in a picture of poutine on a web page. I put some frozen french fries in the oven to cook and set about to make some gravy. Now you probably noticed the title is "Alabama Poutine." There is a reason for that. In addition to using mozzarella instead of cheese curd, I intended to use gravy of my own design. Many of the webpages that discuss poutine mention using canned gravy. I had a different idea. I was gonna use home made tomato gravy. So I put a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour in my little cast iron skillet and started to stir. Fifteen minutes later I had a fine little roux. To that I added about 2/3 cup of beef broth and 2 tablespoons of chipped up tomatoes. I let the gravy simmer while I retrieved the french fries from the oven and sprinkled them with the chopped up mozzarella. Next I spooned some of the tomato gravy over them. Voilà, Alabama Poutine. Not a bad dish. I went back for a second helping.

Sending A Message

I like to think of myself as a fairly easy going guy. I am sure that there are those that would disagree with me being easy going, especially if they knew me several years ago and have not been around me lately. As I get older, things that used to wind me up tight not longer have the same affect. There are a lot of things in this country that I find distasteful and many that I find troubling but I try to remain philosophical and if it does not affect me directly, I attempt to let it slide.

But, there is one thing that will put my piss in a boil faster than a match will light a open container of gasoline. I hate, loath and despise the expression "sending a message." Everywhere you turn, there is some jackass talking about doing something to "send a message" or not doing something because it "sends the wrong message." What the hell does that mean anyway, send a message? What do I care what message something sends. We need to make decisions in this country on the basis of right or wrong, not what kind of damn message it sends. Of course, therein lies part of the problem. We long ago got away from considering what is right and wrong. Now we worry about what is legal and what is illegal. Well I can tell you one thing; right trumps legal every time. If what you are doing is wrong, but legal, sooner or later its gonna come back to bite you in the ass regardless of the message you are sending.

This really is incredible

I know that this woman is very well organized and obviously she spends a lot of preparation time, but her results really do knock my socks off

Mrs. Head's English Class

When I was in high school, we had an English teacher named Mrs Head. Her husband was my eighth grade math teacher and later on the High School Principal. They were great folks.

Earlier today I read this article on CBS.com about a screw up the Texas Legislature made back in 2005. Seems that in an effort to make gay marriages illegal, they enacted a law that contained the following wording: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

If the Legislators in Texas had been in Mrs Head's English class, they would have realized that dog won't hunt. Every one has their pet peeves and Mrs Head's was statements that said things like "There is no Candy Bar like a Milky Way." When she heard something like that she would say, NO! There is no OTHER candy bar like a Milky way. To say that there is no candy bar like a Milky Way means that a Milky Way is not a candy bar, if it was, then there would be a candy bar like a Milky Way. Since marriage is a legal status that is identical to marriage, the ole boys in Texas done outlawed marriage, which come to think of it might be a problem solver in itself.

A Sick Parody of A Real Country

I know that there is a lot of good left in this country, in spite of what you see on reality tv and read in the papers and in the online press. I do my best to avoid all that crap and to keep a positive outlook, but then something like this pops up and I just throw up my hands and say enough.

In case the link is broken when you read this, it points to a story on CBSnew.com. The bottom line is that a mother in a "small Arkansas town" could not get her 10 year old daughter to take a shower so she called the cops. The cop tried to get the girl to settle down and she kicked the cop in the nuts so he tasered her. The whole story is soooo wrong on soooo many levels that I feel dirty just repeating it. (1) What kind of mother can't make a 10 year old kid take a shower? (2) What kind of dumbass calls the cops to make a kid take a shower? (3) What kind of cop can't control a 10 year old girl without tasering her? I hope that we find out later on that this is some kind of sick ass hoax. If not, and if this kind of stuff is going on, we have devolved into a sick parody of a real country.

Bingo

Back when I was an elementary school student (1953 - 1958) we used to have a Halloween Party at my school. Back then, you could still have Halloween parties, you did not have to call them Fall Festivals and everyone could go, even the kids that went to the local Baptist church. About the same time every year, if I remember correctly it was usually after Halloween but before Thanksgiving, we had a Bingo party. Everyone could play. I remember the excitement I experienced the first time I bingoed. I won a Lane cake, a real Lane cake made with real Bourbon whiskey. I know it was because I still remember the lady that made it coming up and telling my mama how much she used. Fast forward to today and show me the elementary school in Central Alabama where you can go and play bingo and win a real Lane cake, especially if you are a student at that school.

What got me to thinking about all this was this article I just read on Al.com. There has been a whole lot of talk lately about Bingo in the state of Alabama, accusations made and countered, court cases, news broadcasts, media articles, etc. I have to ask myself, is Bingo or any other kind of gambling really the biggest problem this state has? Does it really deserve the attention it is getting?

I pretty much keep to myself. I don't belong to any local organizations, don't go to any of the churches and my child is long since grown so I don't have any reason to hang around schools, but I do read the occasional paper, overhear conversations in the grocery store or Walmart and sometimes I will talk to folks I'm standing in line with at a fast food restaurant. Based on what I am seeing and hearing, we have a lot of folks in Alabama that are hurting. Times are rough, people are out of work, more adults and children are going hungry. In my humble opinion, the self righteous hypocrites in this state who are so concerned about whether or not someone is going to a Halloween party or playing Bingo on a machine some where could better spend their time addressing the real needs of the state and its people.

Instant Replay

I watch a little Major League Baseball and College Football on TV and listen to a lot of both of them on the radio. I grew up listening to Auburn Football on the radio back when the NCAA or someone limited the number of games a team could appear on TV. Back then I was too young and too poor to go to all the games and the only other option for keeping up with the Tigers was radio. I never was a big MLB fan. I watched some KC Royals games when Bo Jackson played for them but not much else. When I met Linda, she got me hooked on the Atlanta Braves so now I enjoy watching them, but I can still equally enjoy listening to them on the radio. Many folks don't understand how I could enjoy and maybe even prefer radio to TV, but some folks don't understand how I can "stand" those old black and white movies either. When challenged about liking sports on the radio I simply answer that it is a "theater of the mind" thing and move on. I'm telling you this so you will realize that my perspective on TV sports is probably different from yours and maybe from most folks.

So here is my take on Instant Replay. "It sucks, do away with it." The little good that it does when it occasionally gives the officials a chance to "lick the calf over" is more than off set by the problem of a break in the flow of the game. I'm speaking here of football. Games were much more exciting when the teams ran a play and if intervention by the officials was necessary, the call was made, and everyone moved on. Sure a coach or player might voice their disagreement and "lobby" for further consideration later on, but the current play was over and done with. The ruling on the field always stood. Now, with the review process, the flow of the game is disrupted, the veracity of the officiating is immediately called into question and thousands of folks wait while some replay official does his best to try to see what really happened. It gives a herky jerky tone to the games that they did not have in the days before instant review. College football was much better without the Instant Replay and without overtime tie breaking, but don't let me get started on that horror story.

Everything Nice Stove

I follow Greentrust on twitter and the other day he had a link to a Worldstove.com video in one of his tweets. I watched the video demo of the Lucia Stove and was impressed. I went to Worldstove.com's site and quickly saw that the Lucia Stove, even a back pack model, was rather pricely but they had free plans for what they called an EverythingNice stove.

I looked at the plans and decided that it was something I could do. It took me a couple of days to find the right cans and to fit them together but late last week, I had my version of the Everything Nice ready to try. It is not as impressive as the Lucia, but it works very well and cost virtually nothing to make. I used cans I had on hand and my only expense was for a 1/2 counter sink and a 3 inch hole saw to help me in the construction. The stove I made is about 7 1/2 inches tall and approximately 6 3/8 inches in diameter.

This past weekend, I did some experimenting with various fuels that I had available. I was very pleased with how the stove worked. My best results to date has been with the inner can filled to the fill line with shredded papers soaked in about 1/2 cup of used cooking oil. This resulted in a 42 minute burn. The burn was virtually free of visible smoke.

I crafted a ring to allow me to put a pot on top of the stove without extinguishing the fire and this morning I made my first pot of coffee on the stove. It worked great. I think that this Everything Nice stove is going to prove to be an excellent camping companion.

Tilapia

Late last week I watched a video on YouTube of some guy cutting filets off a tilapia. It looked like something I could do so Sunday I went by the local Food$mart and got a couple of whole tilapia. One was 560 grams the other was 428 grams. I fileted the first one Sunday. I battered the filets in cornmeal, salt and black pepper and fried them in olive oil. One thing I didn't do that the guy in the video did was to remove the skin. The fried tilapia filets with skin on had a taste that reminded me of bream.

Today I fileted the smaller tilapia. Again I left the skin on. I blackened these. During the blackening, the skin turned loose. I was able to pull it back with a fork with no damage to the filets. The blackened tilapia filets were very tasty. Maybe not quite so much of a fish taste with the skin removed.

I am sure I will be preparing tilapia both ways in the future, but when I intend to blacken them, I will go ahead and remove the skin to simplify things.

Onion Humor

I love The Onion , they rate right up there with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and South Park as being the most politically incorrect media entities. I just finished reading this onion article and I was laughing my ass off until I remembered some of the things I had read in the comments section on AL.com recently. I reflected for a minute and decided that if the entire country is as overrun with dumb asses as the AL.com forums appear to be, this Onion article could actually happen in the near future.

Smart Folks

I just finished reading this New York Times opinion article. It reminded me of something I heard from an instructor when I was at Auburn.

It was my second time to take Differential Equations (I took several courses twice) and my instructor was a graduate student. He was, by his own account, somewhat lazy. I don't recall him ever giving a real lecture. He preferred instead to assign homework and then have selected students go to the board the next day and work the problems. Since I had taken DE before and had kept copious notes, I had the solution to many if not most of the homework problems. The solutions were easy to copy to the board and we got credit for "working a problem at the board." Often, when students were at the board "working" problems the instructor would broach off on to a non mathematical subject. On one occasion, I remember he was talking about the government. I don't remember the details of what he was saying but I do recall that someone suggested that since he had all the answers, maybe he should be president. His response was that he was an intellectual and that intellectuals should never be president because they would be so certain of the right way to do things that they would be contemptuous of the people and would become dictators.

Seems like the NYT article sort of supports that theory. Although the smart people didn't get to the top of Wall Street, they did get high enough to reek havoc. Maybe we should IQ test everyone and prohibit people above a certain IQ from holding positions of authority or influence in companies or in the government. This would accomplish two things. First, smart, conniving, people would not be allowed into positions where they could disrupt the lives of others. Second, everyone would know that Presidents, Vice Presidents, Managers, Supervisors, etc were kinda slow and they would not pay them too much attention. The world might be a better place.

What Happened to Global Warming?

The BBC asks the question What happened to Global Warming?

Seeing What We Want To See

Last year before the election I was talking to one of my engineer buddies that works at the electrical utility where I used to work. We were talking about the upcoming presidential election and he was telling me that most of the folks in his church were excited to have a black candidate running for president. That may seem strange to you since we are in Alabama, but my buddy is black. Anyway, he is like me, never thinks the same as everyone else thinks and never misses a opportunity to say what he thinks. He told his fellow church members that when he looked at Mr. Obama, he did not see a black man, he saw a politician. I agreed with him at the time and I still do.

A couple of days ago I was talking to someone from North Alabama and the person told me that many of their friends and acquaintances over the age of 65 were up in arms over the governments recommendation that people over 65 be the last to get the H1N1 flu shot. The north Alabama oldies have come to the conclusion that this is the Obama administration's way to kill them off. While it wasn't stated, I suspect that the majority of them are white and republican. My advice to them would be to be glad if the government was trying to kill them. Our government is so inept at everything it does that if it tries to kill you, you may get into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living person.

So the black church members in Birmingham looked at Obama and saw the great black hope. The old white republicans in north Alabama look at him and see someone planning eldercide. As I said before, I am like my engineer friend, I look at Obama and see a politician and if I don't listen to what he says, but watch what he does, he is pretty much like the politician that held that office before him.

AL.COM

A couple of times every day, I pull up AL.COM to see if anything interesting is happening around me. If I find an article that interests me, I read it. Then, I usually check out the comments that accompany it. I was born in Alabama and have lived here all my life. I know that some of the best, most polite and smartest people in the world live here, but apparently none of them make comments on AL.COM. For every half way intelligent comment, there are at least ten that are asinine and the flaming that goes on is heart breaking.

I've given it some thought and I believe that the problem is the anonymity in posting. If everyone had to include in their posts their real name and the city where they lived, I expect that a lot of the crap that is posted now wouldn't be.

Time for Plan "B"

According to LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), an estimated 1.3 percent of the US population were drug addicts in 1913 before the Harrison Anti Drug Act was passed. The Harrison Act made drugs like cocaine and marijuana illegal. In 1970, just before President Nixon declared the "War on Drugs" an estimated 1.3 percent of the US population were drug addicts. Today, after fighting the "War on Drugs" for nearly 40 years and spending approximately 1 trillion dollars, approximately 1.3 percent of the US population are drug addicts. I think it is time for Plan "B".

Corky's New Rag Rug

Chickenlittleism

Don't believe it when someone tells you the United States is a Christian nation, or a Capitalist nation or even that it has become a Socialist nation. Nope, we are a nation of Chickenlittleists. Our nation practices Chickenlittleism. If you don't believe me, read this link.

In an article on Yahoo about this same incident, I read where the shots mentioned were actually someone saying bang, bang, bang over the radio to simulate shots being fired. Only Chickenlittlelists would mistake someone saying bang, bang, bang for real gun fire.

This is not a isolated instance. Remember the advertising campaign in Boston several months back when the city was paralyzed because of some electronic alien signs that some idiot misidentified as being explosive devices? And how many times have you heard of some airport being shut down for hours because someone walked off and forgot to take a parcel they had with them?

I realize that the world is not a safe place. It never has been, it never will be, but all these Chickenlittlelists are not helping anything. My advice to the Chickenlittlelists, grow a set and get on with your life and quit disrupting everyone elses.

Swine Flu Shot?

I don't think so. Read this and decide for yourself.

Man Made Global Warming Is A Crock

So says MIT Professor Richard Lindzen. This article gives the details.

Health Care Reform

I have been withholding judgement on health care reform up until now. First, because it will have a limited effect on me. I have good insurance right now and I will be 65 in 3 years and forced into a government run system whether I like it or not. Second, because while I know that the present system sucks, I don't trust the government to make anything better. Truth is, the system we have now is as screwed up as it is because of previous government intervention. And third, I did not feel like I had enough information to make a valid judgement.

That all changed a few minutes ago. I read this article that says the current plan being talked about would use the IRS as the primary tool to assure that our national insurance situation improved. Of all the people, places, and things in this world that I could imagine turning responsibility for my health care over to, the very last one that I would ever consider would be the IRS. If this is the best that congress can do, they need to close up shop and come home.

Chrome

I have been using Firefox almost exclusively for quite some time. Occasionally I will use IE but not very often. I had read some interesting things about Chrome but was unable to try it as it requires at least Win XP and my main computer was still running W2K. All that changed a few weeks ago. Lightning took out my W2K box along with the old Dell Optiplex that was running Ubuntu and an emachine that I used for software testing.

I used my Dell laptop docked for awhile and then I came upon a nice Dell GX280 on ebay at a great price. It came with Win XP installed. After getting it set up with the things I needed, I added Chrome. Chrome is fast and according to the Windows Task Manager is relatively light on memory usage. Granted, I have only been using it for a couple of day but so far I think it is the best browser I have seen. I can't wait for them to come out with the Linux version so I can try it on my eeePC 900.

Solution to the Jefferson County Problem.

In the 1860's in central Alabama, portions of Montgomery, Autauga, Coosa, and Tallapoosa counties were taken and formed into a new county that bore the name Elmore. In Virginia, cities exist separate from the surrounding counties. If I am not mistaken, Richmond VA in not in a county but is a separate entity from its adjacent counties.

If counties can cede portions of themselves to form new counties, then it would seem that existing counties could be split up and ceded to the counties that surrounding them. If cities can exist outside of counties in Virginia then it would seem that cities could exist outside counties in Alabama.

My solution to the current Jefferson County mess is to let the city of Birmingham and any of its adjacent municipalities that chose to join it form a Birmingham City that is not located in any county. Then take whats left of Jefferson county and annex it on to the various counties that currently surround Jefferson county. Give the city of Birmingham representation in the legislature similar to what a county would have. Then the state of Alabama would have 66 counties, 1 autonomous city and the corrupt, inept, embarrassing mess that is currently Jefferson county would cease to exist.

Nativity and Naivety

For no other reason than it is Sunday afternoon and I don't have much going on, I decided to look up the words nativity and naivety online. Here are the the definitions I found, or at least my interpretation of their definitions:

Nativity - Birth, especially the place, condition and circumstances of being born.

Naivety - The belief that there are substantive differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Graduated From Auburn University with the Lowest Grade Point Ever

During most of my high school years, it was my intent upon graduation to go to Auburn University and study engineering. Sometime in my senior year of high school, I decided to go my first two years to Alex City State Junior College instead. I don't remember the exact details of that decision but I think it had to do with living at home for two more years which would definitely be cheaper. Anyway, I did go to ACJC for two years and during that time, I burned up virtually all of my electives. When I got to Auburn as a Junior, there was not much left except engineering courses. There were a few math and physics courses, but they offered no respite from the grueling engineering curriculum. Enough, excuses. Bottom line is I failed early and I failed often. I had a pretty good gpa at ACJC, but my Auburn gpa stunk.

Back then Auburn was on a 3 point system. The minimum grade point average required for graduation was 1.0. My Auburn gpa entering my last quarter was 0.98. If you calculated my overall gpa for college it was about 1.40. Problem was that Auburn at that time counted all your transfer work at 1.0 until after you graduated, so my overall grade point pregraduation was about 0.99. On the appointed day, I went to the registrar's office to petition for graduation at the end of the quarter. The lady looked at my transcript, looked at my current grades and said you don't have a 1.0 overall. I said yes mam, does that mean I am not gonna graduate? She said "not necessarily." You have a 1.40 with your transfer work. I said yes mam, does that mean I am gonna graduate? She said "not necessarily." You see you don't get full credit for your transfer work until after you have graduated. I said yes mam, does that mean I am not gonna graduate? She said "not necessarily." I think there were two or three more exchanges to which she replied "not necessarily" but time has erased them from my memory. Or maybe I can't remember them because they say you can't remember pain. Anyway, I finally got the courage and asked "Mam, am I gonna graduate?" Her response was "I think so."

I held my breath up to graduation day. I stood as still as possible in line on graduation day so as not to call any attention to myself. Finally my moment came, I crossed the stage, took the diploma and shook someones hand and the deal was done. I had a 1.40, but a few seconds earlier I had a 0.99 so to this day, I believe that I graduated from Auburn University with the lowest grade point ever.

What Is Really Important In America

This article talks a little bit about the single most important problem facing America today. Most of what you see on TV or read online or in the newspaper is just sensational fluff. The incidents described in the linked article are exhibitions of a legal system that looks like something designed in an insane asylum. Until we put a stop to this craziness, nothing else matters, not terrorism, not abortion, not gun control or the lack of it, not taxes, not health care, not drugs, not racism, nothing. Because when you live in a country where some bureaucrat can get it in for you and have you incarcerated for "something that no reasonable person would ever think was a crime", then changing that system back to to something that is sane is the only thing that is really important.

Freedom

I just finished reading this interesting Backwoods Home article by Claire Wolfe. Claire Wolfe is one of my favorite writers and Backwoods Home is my favorite magazine so it is kind of ironic that I found the article following a link on the internet. It is a very informative and thought provoking article, and yes, I do own a copy of "How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World", by Harry Browne.

That Good Inshowance

Backed when I worked for the local electric utility company we had a president that used to like to tell us about what good inshowance we had. He was a highly intelligent man but he talked a lot like I do and he never said insurance, he called it inshowance.

I have never been a big fan of insurance. When he would mention our good inshowance, I would aways wonder to myself, is it really as good as he thinks it is? That is a question that has troubled me all my life. Every time I review my expenditures and see how much I am paying for the various types of insurance I ask myself, am I getting my money's worth? If I ever have a claim will they actually pay off? This morning I read this article. After I finished it, I thought to myself, just how good is my insurance? I suspect that I am better off not knowing the answer.

How Fast We (USA) Spend Our Money

If this doesn't scare the $h1t out of you, you are brain dead.

Social Security

This morning I got an email about Social Security from a friend. The email said that the US Senate had recently voted to extend Social Security benefits to illegal aliens. It contained a petition directed at the Whitehouse urging the president to veto this legislation should it become law. The email prompted me to blog a bit about Social Security.

I have spent most of my adult life thinking and saying that the Social Security system was going to go broke and that I would never live to see a penny of that money which I had paid in over the years. I now believe that I was wrong. Don't misunderstand me. I still think that Social Security is a very bad idea. I've been in enough Multi-Level Marketing plans over the years to know that Social Security is going to end badly. What I was wrong about is how it is going to end. I recently read an article where the author was describing his take on what the future held. One of the things he mentioned was the effect that the boomers were going to have on Social Security. He did not think that Social Security was going to go bankrupt. In fact he maintained that they would pay out every dollar they promised. The only change he predicted for Social Security was the phasing out of the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

He predicted that the government will continue to create ever increasing amounts of money just as they are doing now to "fight the current economic crisis." Social Security payments will be one of the things that will be paid with this new money. The introduction of all this new money into the system will ultimately lead to price inflation. So, rest assured, you are going to get your $1500 a month or whatever the SSA is promising you, but you probably won't be able to buy too much with it.

Canadian Corned Beef Hash?

Last summer I drove up to Alaska. I drove because I had always wanted to drive the AlCan and anyway I am not a big fan of flying. We picked up Linda in Anchorage but for most of the way up and all the way back it was just me and the dogs. My camper has a refrigerator but I don't use it unless I am parked. Driving to Alaska and back there is a lot more non parking than there is parking. Since the refrigerator was not on that much, we relied a lot on non perishable foods. The dogs of course had their dry dog food but they both, and Dixie especially, like to have a little something mixed in with it for variety.

One of the things that all three of us like is corned beef hash. At home, I will often open up a can in the morning and heat up some of it to eat with my eggs. I mix a couple of tablespoons in with the dogs dry food. They love it. My camper is small so I try not to load it down with a lot of things that I can get along the way. When I left Pelham last year, I think I had 2 or 3 cans of corned beef hash loaded in the camper. On the first leg of the trip, Regan and Gantt were with us and we didn't eat any of the corned beef hash. We dropped Regan and Gantt off in Grapevine and headed up through the heartland to Montana and crossed over into Canada. We were well into Alberta before we consumed the last of our corned beef hash. At my next grocery stop I checked but did not see any corned beef hash in that store. I continued looking for it through northern British Columbia and all of the Yukon. I didn't find any more corned beef hash until I got to Alaska.

Do Canadian's eat corned beef hash? I know they have corned beef, I saw it in the stores. They also have potatoes. Do they just cut out the middle man and prepare their own at home? If you know the facts on this, let me know. If you are a Canadian and haven't tried corned beef hash, give it a try. If you can't find it, and want to try it, be on the lookout for a gray dodge pickup with a white camper and Alabama plates. The next time I pass through I intend to have a stock of it.

Audit the FED

Any organization with the sort of power the Federal Reserve has needs to be audited periodically. This article talks about a proposal to enable such an audit to be carried out.

The Canadian Health Care System

In this article from the Denver Post, a Canadian citizen who has lived in the US for 17 years compares the US Health Care System to the Canadian Health Care System. I found what she had to say very interesting.

Some Real Science

Real science from a team of MIT researchers.

Finally, Some Light At The End Of The Tunnel

This article from the Wall Street Journal gives some hope that finally people are beginning to question this climate change BS.

Eat Soup and Loose Weight

This article on BBC News says it is all about the hormone called ghrelin.

Adios GMC

Sold my 1976 GMC motorhome yesterday. I originally bought it in 2003. Actually I bought it on the last day of 2002 and picked it up the day after new years. No tax consideration, that was just the way it worked out.

They say the two happiest days in the life of a boat owner are the day he buys his boat and the day he sells it. Having been a boat owner myself, I can pretty well substantiate that. The GMC was different. I had been looking for one for quite a while before I located mine on a car lot here in Pelham. As with all the TZE's, it had a story with it. Also, as with all of the TZE's and most other motorhomes, as best I can determine, it required a good bit of tinkering. Over the 6 years and 5 months that I owned it, I replaced and/or repaired quite a few items.

But the repairs are not what I will remember about the GMC. It went with me on some great trips. Like the time me and the puppies took it to the Kendall Campground in Kentucky for the World's Longest Yard Sale. And the trip to Gulf Shores to watch Ted play baseball. There were several trips to Auburn Football games and best of all the two weeks at Anastasia State Park in Jacksonville waiting on GE to be born.

If you look at what I paid for it, add in the upkeep and fuel costs and then see what I got for it, you would say damn, that was a poor investment. But if you factor in the worth of the good times it enabled, it was the best money I ever spent. I hope it serves it's new owner as well.

A Chance For TBS To Make Amends

I have been PO'd at TBS ever since they dropped the Braves. This morning I read this article that says they may be interested in picking up the production of "My Name Is Earl". If they do that, they will definitely be out of my dog house.

Dick Cheney

I've been seeing a lot of articles lately about things that the former VP has to say. I'm not like Connie Darville, I don't have a gambling problem. But, I will wager at times and I'd bet you a gold ring against a doughnut hole that when ole Dick gets to his final reward, Saddam Hussein will be his room mate or at the very least his suite mate.

Another Milestone

Several years ago the company that I worked for lowered their early retirement age from 55 to 50. At that time, I was still in my forties. In July of 1997, I reached a milestone. I turned 50. From then on, I knew things would be different because I could retire if I had to. It did not mean a whole lot, just a little added sense of security.

Earlier this month I reached another milestone. The Social Security Administration lets you go ahead and sign up 90 days before you are eligible to receive your first check. I suppose that gives them 90 days to handle the paperwork. Since I will be 62 in July, I will be eligible to receive my first check August 1. So on May 1, I was able to sign up to draw Social Security and I did just that. Some folks have asked me "why don't you wait for a while so your check will be more?" The best way I can respond is to tell something I learned while I worked for my father at Miller's Garage.

My father ran his business before credit cards became so ubiquitous. Never the less, there were people who needed credit. Then as now for most folks in this part of the world, an automobile was essential for getting to and from work. If your vehicle feel into disrepair and could not be used, you probably would not be able to work and could easily loose your job. So people would bring in their vehicles for my father to work on and, paraphrasing Whimpy, tell him I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for car repair today.

In his office, my father kept a stack of plain receipt books like you could buy in the dime store. He would write the name of the customer along the top line, the nature of the repair on the lines on the left side , dollar amounts in the right hand column and total it up at the bottom. There would be an original and a carbon. The carbon he kept for his records, the original he gave to the customer when they paid up. (Here is where we come to the part that relates to the SSA.) Some of his credit customers would come in and pay with cash but quite a few of them would write him a check. Most of the checks he would take home to mama and she would gather several of them together, fill out a deposit slip and mail them off to the Alexander City Bank. Occasionally someone would come in and write my father a check and after they left, he would go to town to their bank and cash their check. He said that, in their case, he needed to get up there and get his money while they still had some in the bank. I have sized up SSA to be that sort of check writer and that is the reason I signed up to receive my first social security check on August 1.

The RV World of 1937

According to this inflation calculator the 1937 dollar mentioned in this video would be worth about $15.00 today. Still a great bargain for a weeks rent.

Core Values Of Survival

Lew Rockwell had a link to these 10 Core values of Survival on his web page a couple of days ago. They make sense. Nothing I haven't heard before but it is nice to see it concisely stated in one place.

Why I Welcome Global Warming.

Every time I turn around, someone is bemoaning the fact that we are experiencing global warming. To tell you the truth, when I look at this past winter's heating bills I have a hard time believing that we are truly experiencing global warming, man-made or not. But if we are, I welcome it.

You see, I am retired, fixed income and all that. It doesn't take a Harvard economist to see that this country, in fact the whole world, is inflating the money supply. For folks like me, that means that in the future my fixed income will buy less and less. If the climate warms up, I will have to buy less fuel for heat. Also, increased CO2 will make plants grow better. That is going to be important because what little money I have will no doubt have to go to pay my taxes and I will have to grow what I eat. More CO2 will help the little plants feed me.

So when I hear someone talking about global warming, I say bring it. I would rather be laying around under a shade tree with a full stomach trying to keep cool than to be freezing to death and starving. Think about it!

Interesting Technology

While I don't think much of man made global warming, I do think that anything that will increase our sources of available energy or that will help us better utilize what we have is worth while. When I read about this technology that converts waste CO2 to methane, I found it very interesting. You can check it out for yourself here.

Marijuana Debate on Larry King Show

Linda saw this discussion on "Larry King" and she said that it was a good one. Today, I saw a link to it on the blog at Lewrockwell.com. I watched it and I agree it makes a lot of sense.

Old Glory Insurance

Still one of my favorites. You will have to watch a commercial first.

"What If...?"

I'm an Artist Too !

After reading this article in the TimesOnLine, I've come to the conclusion that I am an artist as well. I especially appreciated the Einstein quote - "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?”