2/19/2014
2/18/2014
2/17/2014
New Day Dawning...
Here is a little tidbit I received via e-mail from a weight lifting site I subscribe to;
Read it and ask yourself, could you imagine Obama doing that?
Hell, could you imagine Obama even spending time with wounded soldiers?
The last time he went to Afghanistan, he met with Marines only after they had been disarmed.
American Marines, disarmed before being allowed in the same building with the American president.
The mind reels...
With today being President's day, here's
a presidential feat of strength that you
probably haven't heard before:
*******************************************
On the day of April 8th, 1865, President
Lincoln was at a Union Army field hospital
in Virginia. spending hours shaking hands
and greeting thousands of wounded soldiers.
At the end of that long day, he spotted an
ax and walked over to it.
He was able to grip the ax by the very end
of the handle and hold the 7-pound tool
parallel to the ground, motionless. He was
56 years old at the time.
"Strong men who looked on, men accustomed
to manual labor, could not hold the same
ax in that position for a moment," wrote
Francis Fisher Browne, a Union soldier who
authored a biography called "The Every-Day
Life of Abraham Lincoln."
Lincoln performed this feat on several
occasions and it was never mentioned
that anyone could duplicate it.
2/14/2014
2/08/2014
Greatness, Past & Present
The trans Alaska Pipeline.
Construction on the Trans Alaska pipeline began on March 27, 1975 and was completed on May 31, 1977. It's approximately 800 miles long and crosses some of the roughest, coldest, most remote country in North America. It has survived earthquakes, attempts at sabotage, and has produced without a spill. The environmental destruction many said would result never happened.
Today, with the environmental laws, workplace requirements, and numerous other impediments, this pipeline would take at least twice as long to build, if it could be built at all. Similarly, a nation, the only nation, to have placed men on the moon and brought them safely home numerous times can no longer put men in space on its own. Both conditions are self-inflicted. We still have the capability, but the will is eroding. How familiar today's prevalent attitudes would seem to the Romans of the early 4th century.
1/17/2014
View From The Porch 1-17-14
So now we have melting snow, rain, and high wind warnings.
A real slop fest.
This is a hand held, four exposure HDR. ISO:200.
Ruminations On The War On Poverty
While visiting Samizdata, a very well written blog, I came across this comment, "The United States, since the times of the “Great Society”, has spent approximately 24 trillion dollars on anti-poverty programs, while the percentage of those considered to be in poverty has remained the same. With a 50 year track record as evidence of the utter failure of the welfare state, it amazes me that the public continues to buy into this form of wealth re-distribution."
An insightful observation.
Needless to say, you always get someone to disagree. So I decided to look it up as best I could in a short amount of time. Here's what I came up with after a brief search.
Federal spending, population and poverty totals [iii]
Total People in Welfare Expenditure Population[iv] Poverty[v] Expenditures[vi] Per Person (Millions) (Millions) (Billions) In Poverty
1960 179.5 39.9 $17.7 $445
1970 202.2 25.4 $43.9 $1,726
1980 225.0 29.3 $128.8 $4,399
1990 248.6 33.6 $138.2 $4,116
2000 278.9 31.6 $205.4 $6,503
2010 305.7 46.2 $349.6 $7,571
2011 308.5 46.2 $369.2 $7,983
2012 310.6 46.5 $356.8 $7,674
These figures came from the Federal Safety Net site.
That totals $52,245 for a family of four even though the Poverty Threshold for such a family is $23,492
Next I went over to Wikipedia.
So, what's a person to make of this?
I think we could conclude that the 24 trillion dollars spent to fight poverty have been a failure.
Yet we continue to spend ever larger amounts to combat poverty and now also it's evil cousin income inequality. Our current occupant of the White House has publicly stated he wants to "spread the wealth around."
I paraphrase a definition of insanity (and stupidity) as 'doing the same thing over & over but expecting a different result.'
I fervently hope that it begins to dawn on those who still think this type of waste is actually good and a better alternative than growing the economy, that it is NOT about helping the poor. It never has been. It's about power, control, creating a dependent underclass who will always support you out of necessity.
Or as Lyndon B. Johnson said, "I’ll have those n*****s voting Democrat for the next 200 years."
His words, not mine.
Finally, let me leave you with two items via American Digest.
The first this comment.
"There are 8 levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to create a fascist state. The first is the most important. 1) Healthcare – Control healthcare and you control the people
2) Poverty – Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control – Remove the ability for citizens to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income)
6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
7) Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools
8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) the wealthy with the support of the poor.
Does any of this sound like what is happening to the United States "
And finally,
1/11/2014
1/07/2014
Boy Scout Motto; "Be Prepared"
A view of the transfer switch I installed this fall. A switch for the house and a switch for the garage.
The generator plugs in at the receptacle between the second transfer switch and the window.
It's nice to have a tested backup.
1/03/2014
1/02/2014
1/01/2014
Happy New Years 2014
Here's a little something I saw over at American Digest.
It rings true and more succinctly sums up what I have tried to say in the past.
The "learned helplessness" is so deep it shows up even in our fantasy life. This is why I beg people to find ANY way to fight back. Stop looking for The One way to fight back. To make up for not fighting back we imagine we, or someone that will fight on our behalf, will find the one unguarded and vital target where we can attack and win in an instant. Politically, we fantasize about finding the weak spot in The Death Star and firing a kill shot.
The Left didn't bring the country under their control that way. The Left has published books on how to fight the system. They fought the system. They now own the system. The Left waged a Long March through the culture. We keep engaging in Short Retreats to the next "gated-community" that we hope will protect us from liberal domination.Start fighting in small ways, anywhere, and it will give you confidence to fight more and the tide will turn IF liberals find they can't rely on never finding opposition. Use direct language. Call them communists, racists, sexist, traitors, etc. You don't gain respect by speaking in moderate language about the people that are setting fire to this country.
This isn't Sunday School. This is a Civil War. The Left already knows it. They already fight like it's a Civil War. You might as well face up to it. Posted by: Scott M at December 31, 2013 1:14 PM
12/25/2013
12/21/2013
This year's Darwin Awards - H/T My Underwood Typewriter
1. When his .38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended
victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California would-be robber James
Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the
barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
And Now, The Honorable Mentions:
2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat
cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to
his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of
its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also
lost a finger. The chef’s claim was approved.
3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his
car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a
woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.
4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus
driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be
transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit
his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered
everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to
the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very
excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn’t
discovered for 3 days.
5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from
serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he
received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to
see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
6.. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on
the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash
drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register,
which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk
and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash
he got from the drawer… $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives
you money, is a crime committed?]
7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He
decided that he’d just throw a cinder block through a liquor store
window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and
heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and
hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The
liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on
videotape.
8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a
man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the
woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher.
Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the
car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the
car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied,
“Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”
9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked
into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and
demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t
open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion
rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast… The
frustrated gunman walked away. [*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER]
10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home
parked on a Seattle street by sucking on a hose, he got much more than
he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man
curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police
spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he
plugged his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake.
The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was
the best laugh he’d ever had and the perp had been punished enough!
In the interest of bettering mankind, please share these with
friends and family…. unless of course one of these individuals by chance
is a distant relative or long lost friend. In that case, be glad they
are distant and hope they remain lost.
*****Remember*****
They walk among us, they can reproduce.
12/19/2013
12/14/2013
12/12/2013
12/10/2013
11/30/2013
Morning's Light
This morning's view from the porch. Our thermometer read -6 degrees F this morning. As I was leaving to go to my daughter's hockey game, I saw this view and had to take a moment to soak it in, then get my camera and shoot it. Some things never grow tiring.
11/27/2013
Happy Thanksgiving
From this site about comes this information about today's Thanksgiving holiday.
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She explained, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."
Prior to this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other Northern states. President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale's request immediately, unlike several of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In her letter to Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national thanksgiving date for 15 years as the editor of Godey's Lady's Book. George Washington was the first president to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, issuing his request on October 3, 1789, exactly 74 years before Lincoln's.
The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise." According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
So, on that note, have a Happy Thanksgiving and may we all have more to be thankful for this time next year.
11/22/2013
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