Nov 30th - Political Commentary - Same Old Demo Stuff

Things never seem to change. If you can't read the text of this scan it is reproduced below.

ODE TO THE WELFARE STATE

Daily News, Friday, November 4, 1949

Mr. Truman's St. Paul, Minn., pie-for-everybody speech last night
reminded us that, at the tail-end of the recent session of Congress,
Representative Clarence J. Brown (R-Ohio) jammed into the
Congressional Record the following poem, describing its author only
as “a prominent Democrat of the State of Georgia”:

DEMOCRATIC DIALOG

Father, must I go to work? 

No, my lucky son.

We're living now on Easy Street

On dough from Washington.

 We've left it up to Uncle Sam,

So don't get exercised.

Nobody has to give a damn –

We've all been subsidized.

But if Sam treats us all so well

And feeds us milk and honey,

Please, daddy, tell me what the hell

He's going to use for money.

 Don't worry, bub, there's not a hitch

In this here noble plan –

He simply soaks the filthy rich

And helps the common man.

But, father, won't there come a time

When they run out of cash

And we have left them not a dime

When things will go to smash?

My faith in you is shrinking, son,

You nosy little brat;

You do too damn much thinking, son,

To be a Democrat.

Nov 29th - More From the RINO's

How much more evidence is needed before all conservatives and libertarians abandon the Republican party?

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday opened the door to extending the payroll tax holiday, just two days after his top deputy suggested Republicans would not support a renewal of the temporary cut.

"In all likelihood, we will agree to continue the current payroll tax relief for another year," McConnell said Tuesday

The "payroll tax cut holiday" is nothing more than the blatant theft of money that should be going into Social Security. The lying scum in DC claim that they are going to use money from the general fund to put the money back into Social Security. Obama is running massive annual deficits of $1.3 TRILLION, where is the federal government going to get the money to put into Social Security?

The people in DC can't be so stupid as to think the huge increases in spending and debt the past few years was good for the nation. I'm not sure of their motive but I am sure that it isn't in the best interests of those of us who want the government off our backs.

Please support Civil Libertarians whenever you have the opportunity.

On another note. If Herman Cain turns out to be a lying piece of trash like "I did not have sex with that woman." Bill Clinton, is it possible that he will get the support of those who supported Clinton. Of course Cain has still not managed to commit perjury, like Clinton did.

Nov 29th - First Full Day at YWAM Tyler

Today went well. I walked over and had breakfast in the dining hall. It was "do it yourself" instant oatmeal.

At 9 AM Kathy and I met with Patty, the volunteer coordinator. She talked to us some more about what we wanted to do while we were here and then had a guy give us 2 hour tour of the facility.

For lunch we had potato soup, NOT like Grandma Ruthie used to make, but edible.

Supper was chicken and I think Kathy called them lentils. She like it. I thought it was barely edible. One of the guys said that we were having fish and chips for supper. The chicken was a huge disappointment. We ended up driving into Lindale so that I cold get some Long John Silver's fish.

At 1 PM I started "work". I helped build forms for a stair on the new building. Tomorrow we hope to finish the forms for the first stair and start on the forms for a 2nd stair.

Kathy did some painting and staining in the afternoon and is in charge of organizing the paint room. Starting Monday she is going to make soup for the "pay to eat" on site restaurant. They basically gave her free rein to try whatever she wants.

Kathy just talked to Drew and we are getting closer to firming up a date for us to go out and help him with his house. He will probably be moving in next week. We probably won't arrive out there until maybe mid-January. I don't want to be travelling over the Christmas/New Years holidays and it will take us between one and two weeks to get make the trip, unless we really push.

Temps were in the mid 50's today with the low forecast to be 34 tonight. Tomorrow it is supposed to be near 60, and sunny again.

We have met a lot of interesting people so far. A lot of the people who work/volunteer here are Canadians. Ron, my "boss", and his wife are Canadians. Patty, the volunteer coordinator is Canadian and Rob, the guy who gave us the tour, is also Canadian. We had a 4 man crew working on the forms, we were slow <grin>. Ron and I were two of them. The third guy if from Brazil. He is here for the school but also works on site. The fourth guy and his family have lived in many countries. They are trying to figure out what the Lord wants them to do now.

Time to get to bed. Good night to all and may the Lord bless you and yours.

Nov 28th - Pol Comm - Can't Solve Big Problems So Ignore Them

This morning I picked up a Tulsa newspaper. As I scanned the front page I was quickly reminded of the astounding level of incompetence of those we have elected to office. These people are ignoring issues such as Social Security, Medicare, federal spending levels that have skyrocketed over the past 20 years, etc. They flatly refuse to enforce current immigration laws. They let this president ride roughshod over the Constitution while spending over a billion dollars bombing the hell out of a nation that will end up hating the United States. In addition to that they can't even pass a real budget!

What these overbearing demigods are able to do is to waste their time involving themselves in minutia that should have nothing to do with the federal government.

Just on the front page of the paper I read the following:

The USDA has inspectors who inspect dog breeding facilities. It now wants more control over such facilities. Please will someone tell me which Article of the Constitution empowered the federal government to regulate dog breeding? I have no doubt that this program costs us tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars a year.

The US Dept of Labor has proposed changes to child labor regulations that would prevent a farm kid from helping on his grandparents farm, or even helping on his own parents farm if the farm is incorporated.

The federal government spent $46 million buying Oklahoma buildings, primarily because they were "unstable". They are above mines that were abandoned in the early 1970's. Can anyone explain to me why my son, who lives in San Francisco, should be pushed further in debt so that the federal government can borrow money to buy buildings in Oklahoma? For that matter why should any taxpayer outside the state of Oklahoma be forced to buy these buildings. By the way. There is already a group of these building owners who are suing the federal government over what they were offered for the buildings.

The really great article did not make the front page. I didn't find it until page A9. Congress is now in a battle over whether or not pizza is a vegetable. I swear this is not a joke. The U.S. House recently passed a bill that will prevent pizza from having its status as a vegetable stripped. To quote the writers of the article, "we didn't even know it had been declared a vegetable in the first place."

The federal government should not be wasting its time, and our money, on any of the above issues. At best the issues, other than illegal immigration, should be handled by State and Local governments.

This type of baloney and we the taxpayers are supposed to believe the taxes need to be raised because everything the federal government is working on is to important to be cut from the budget. WHAT A JOKE! and a bad one at that.

Any politician who even suggests that the federal budget should not be limited to 18% of GDP, as proposed by Utah's Senator Mike Lee, should be thrown out of office and replaced with someone who has read the Constitution and, more importantly, who understands that bigger government is not the answer to every problem.

Nov 28th - At YWAM in Texas

We arrived about 2 PM today. The overnight low in McAlester last night was actually 24 degrees. It was the coldest temperature we have experienced while living in the motorhome. Since we overnighted at a Walmart parking lot we had to run our generator most of the night to provide electricity for the heat pads on the tanks, run the furnace blower, keep a light bulb on behind the refrigerator, which is basically outside, to keep the ice maker water line from freezing and to power my CPAP machine.

I mentioned in last nights post that I would include some photos I took at a rest area in OK.
 The sidewalk had a center stripe painted to make it look like a highway, Route 66.

The picnic tables were in little structures that represented stores.

Here we are parked at YWAM near Lindale, TX. Sorry for the bad photo. I don't know why it turned out so cloudy.

This is the view out the front window of our motorhome. Beyond the trees, which are mostly oaks, is one of the many ponds on the property.

And this is a view to one side of us. I'm not sure what is in the building. Looking the other way is similar. We are the lone campers here.

In January some SOWERS (Servants on Wheels Ever Ready), I think 4 RV's, are coming to spend a month volunteering so is we are still here we will have some neighbors then. We may be in the boonies but we have GREAT WiFi. They recently installed a hub(?) within 75' of our motorhome.

We walked over to the dining hall for supper tonight. It is over a  half mile to the hall. The food was good. I will walk over and meet Ron Coombs for breakfast at 7. He is the guy who I will be working with/for. Sometime tomorrow morning Kathy and I are supposed to get a tour of the campus. I think it is about 450 acres.

Low temp for tonight is supposed to be 32. For the remainder of the week they are forecast to range from 30-41. Highs are forecast to range from 51-59. Most of the days are supposed to be sunny so the days should be pleasant.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 27th - McAlester, OK

We had lunch with Kelsey & Andy and then headed for Texas. We are spending the night in the Walmart parking lot in McAlester, OK. We are about 375 miles from K&A's and have another 200 to go tomorrow to get to Tyler/Lindale, TX.

Traffic was somewhat heavy a lot of the way. The only real delay came just before we got out of Missouri. Repairs are being made to a bridge/overpass on the Missouri/Oklahoma border. It took us over 50 minutes to go 4.5 miles.

We stopped at a rest area to stretch our legs. I took a couple of photos of it but am to tired to mess with them tonight. I will try to remember to post them tomorrow night.

It is 35 degrees here now and supposed to get down to 24 by 6 AM. Tomorrows high in Tyler/Lindale is supposed to be 53 and then 57 on Tuesday. Lows are supposed to be right at freezing for tonight and the next 4 nights. I don't much like that, but the days are supposed to be sunny with highs in the high 50's.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 26th - Prison

Kelsey, Andy, Doug, Anthony & I took a two hour tour of the old Missouri State Penitentiary this morning. It was quite interesting. The prison opened it 1836, the same year that the Alamo was overrun by Santa Anna, and 97 years before Alcatraz became a Federal prison. It closed in 2004. During its heyday it housed as many as 5,300 offenders at one time. The prison was known as "the bloodiest 47 acres in America." In the late 30's Missouri executions started being done using cyanide gas, rather than by hanging. The tour included the gas chamber but I didn't tank any photos of it.

It was interesting to learn that, in the past, justice was handed out without waiting for criminals to die of old age. In Sept 1953 a couple kidnapped and murdered a 6 year old boy. The kidnappers were a drug addicted, alcoholic couple. They buried the boy in the woman's back yard. They were caught, tried, convicted and were executed on December 18, 1953. Had they committed a similar crime in the 90's they would probably still be alive today while lawyers sucked up tax dollars with appeals. On Feb 12, 2010 Leroy Nash, who was sentenced to death in 1983, died of old age while still on death row at the age of 95. In 1975 the average length of time between sentencing and execution was 4 years, today it is over 14 years.

This is looking down the length of one of the cell blocks. The folding chairs were used by those of us in the tour, during a short lecture. We were pretty much "turned loose" to explore this cell block after the lecture.

 This is looking down the length of the cell block from the top tier of cells. The wood roof once burned off this section, years ago, and over 700 prisoners were evacuated from the cells (each cell has a special key) during the fire. The truss you see is a timber truss.

 This is looking across from one side of the cell block to the other. You see the top two, of four, tiers of cells.

 This is also looking across and shows the bottom three, of four, tiers.

After the tour Kathy joined us for lunch at an oriental restaurant.

Good afternoon to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 25th - Jeff City Today

We all (Andy, Kelsey, Doug, Anthony, Ed, Cindy, Kathy &I) went in to Jefferson City this morning. We drove around looking at things for awhile and then stopped and had lunch. It was nice enough that we had lunch at an outside table.

After lunch we drove to the downtown area and walked around, mostly just looking around. Then we went to the downtown dairy/ice cream place. We also drove by some of the houses that Kathy & I had looked at.

Kathy made more noodles for supper, plus there are still lots of leftovers.

In the morning some of us are going to the old prison in Jeff for a two hour tour.

Temperatures are cooling down, but so far no rain. Today's high was in the high 60's and it is still 57, but feels cooler. Tonights low is supposed to be 52 but tomorrow's low is supposed to be 32.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 25th - Pol Comm - Teachers Union Pres Comments

I just love it when the lefty, liberal, big government socialists make it so easy to point out their hypocrisy.

Last month while speaking at the 4^th Annual NW Conference on Teaching for the Social Justice (wonder if “teaching for Social Justice" just means that it is OK to revise history as necessary to support your position), Chicago Teachers Union (if you do web search CTU apparently is the acronym for both the Chicago Teachers Union and the Cannabis Training University) President Karen Lewis not only “bullied” the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, an Obama appointee, because of  his lisp, she also seemed proud to admit that she had  “self-medicated” with “lots of weed” while in college.

I don’t really care whether or not she used drugs while in college, but I do care when someone representing a teachers union get up in front of an audience that contains kids, and sounds like she is proud of her previous illegal drug use.

All the teachers unions have come out strongly against bullying yet she gets up, again in front of an audience containing kids, and says that Arne Duncan must have been educated int a private school because if he had been educated in a public school he would not speak with a lisp. It is really rich that this black woman who heads a union,  is making fun of a Secretary of Education who was appointed by Obama and who previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, appointed by Chicago Mayor Daley.

Arne Duncan attended the prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. His father was a psychology professor at the University of Chicago. About half the students at the school are the children of University employees.  Later Mr. Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. For Ms. Lewis to suggest that Mr Duncan would not have a lisp had he attended a Chicago public school is ludicrous, it is more likely that he would not have survived to graduate.

Union officials are not bothered by Ms. Lewis's comments, instead, "union officials blasted the release this week of the “edited clip” as the work of “right-wing, anti-public education advocates".

You can watch a video of her comments at http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/8831372-418/ctu-president-karen-lewis-jokes-about-us-education-secretary-duncans-lisp-her-smoking-pot.html

Nov 24th - Thanksgiving

We have a lot to be thankful for this day, week, etc. Our first great-grandchild is due next June, family and friends, health, retirement is great, good food, today's weather, etc.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with over 20 family members and friends, at our grand-daughters and her husbands. During the afternoon there were at least 40 people here at times. It was sunny here, in central MO, today with a high of 64. It felt a lot warmer. It was nice enough that we many of us were able to spend significant amounts of time out on the deck.

All the food was good. Kathy made a LOT of noodles. They were really good. There was even enough for me to have some for a late afternoon snack. Elaine's (Andy's Mom) yeast rolls were fantastic. I can't understand how one happened to be left to have with my noodle snack. A true blessing <grin>.

Kelsey left a while ago, around 9 PM, to go shopping. Debbie, Andy's niece who is a couple of years older than Andy, went with her. Jack, Debbie's husband, and Andy are out with David, Andy's Dad, coon hunting. The rest of us are watching TV. Kathy & I will soon be heading to bed. It has been a long, but enjoyable day.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 23rd - Political Commentary - Discouraging Thrift

Why is the federal government discouraging thrift? Due to current government policies people who have tried to save a few dollars, rather than blow every cent they have on new toys, are being punished by interest rates that are below the rate of inflation.

I think that there are a couple of obvious reasons. First, the federal government needs the rates held down to ridiculously low levels so that interest on the massive federal debt that they have run up doesn’t seem to be quite as bad. Second, politicians are far more interested in getting re-elected than in the long term fiscal health of the nation. They are willing to do anything if it will entice people to spend more money, thus artificially stimulating the economy. Basically that is what caused the housing crisis. The federal government made it far to easy for people to borrow more than they could afford, and it enticed lending institutions to make the loans because the feds guaranteed them. The end result was that housing prices inflated to unrealistic levels and, when people started defaulting on loans that they should never have had, housing prices plunged downward.

The current prime rate, the rate banks charge for loans to their most favorable customers, is 3.25%. Since 1947 the median prime rate has been 8.75%. Lending institutions can keep the prime rate this low because the Federal Reserve is running the printing presses overtime to pump out more worthless dollars. At the end of last year the Federal Reserved handed out $9 TRILLION in secret loans to banks, at interest rates as low as 0.5%. Lending institutions could care less what we citizens do with our money when the Fed will hand them out money for free, or at worst a token 0.25% interest rate.

By the way, have you had enough “change” yet?  

On 9/30/200,1 the end of the first fiscal year after Bush took office, the national debt was $5.8 trillion. On 9/30/2009, the end of the first fiscal year after Obama took office the national debt was 11.9 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush presidency the national debt increased by a staggering $6.1 trillion (an average annual increase of $763 billion per year).  $2.9 trillion of that occurred during the last two years of his Presidency when the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate (an annual debt increase of $1,450 billion per year). All of Bush’s big spending during his last two years in office had to have been supported by the Democrats. The Democrats also controlled the Senate during the first two years of the Bush presidency.

The national debt is now over $15 trillion. Based on the latest OMB projections that I could find, in just the first two years of the Obama presidency the debt has increased by $3.1trillion. This occurred with Democrats in control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress. By the end of Obama’s first term in office the national debt is projected to rise to $17.8 trillion (an average annual increase of $1,500 billion). Under Obama the national debt will increase as much during his first term as it did during Bush’s two terms.

Recently the boobs representing us in DC could not even agree to a plan that would cut the projected growth in the national debt by $1.2 trillion over 10 years, when what we need is a plan that will cut it by at least $1.2 trillion per year.

Time to throw all the bums out. Support Civil Libertarians when ever you have the opportunity.

Nov 23rd - Ready for Thanksgiving

Family members from NW Ohio & Indy are supposed to start arriving at K&A's any time now. There will be 20-25 here for dinner tomorrow.

K&A and Kathy & I went to Moose Bros tonight. That makes 3 times for Kathy and I since we have been here.

When we moved here from Ellington the right turn signal on our CR-V did not work. I tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out why today. It is somewhere in the motorhome wiring, but so far I have not been able to trace the wire back to the problem area.

Drew, our son in San Francisco, closed on a house in Oakland today. He is a first time homeowner. When he is ready,we plan on going out there to help him with some maintenance work.

Guess that is all for tonight. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 22nd - Now I Can Tell the "Secret"

We received great news soon after we arrived at our granddaughters a couple of weeks ago, but were told to be silent until further notice. Further notice has now been given. Kathy & I will become great-grandparents next June. Can't wait to take 5 generation pictures with both Kathy's Dad & my Mom.

I put up the last piece of crown molding in Kelsey & Andy's living room today, and then started packing my tools getting ready to leave for the WYAM base in Tyler/Lindale, TX next Monday. We have put Missouri house buying on hold for the time being.

After the temperatures we have been experiencing in Missouri Kathy is wondering if maybe Tyler/Lindale may not be far enough south. Tyler's temps forecast for the next week are a high of 71 with a low of 36. The 71 is great but our heat pumps sure run a lot when it gets below 40. Low temps here in Russellville for the next week are 38 tonight, 37 Wed night, 33 Sat night & 29 Sun night.

Good night and may God bless you and yours. 

Nov 20th - Not Much Happening

I have one piece of crown molding to put up in the living room (can't put it up until Andy finishes the drywall patch over the old attic opening, maybe today). Yesterday we put up molding around the bathroom ceiling and replaced the jamb trim on the utility room door.

Friday Kathy and I had lunch at Moose Brothers BBQ in Russellville.

My hamburger, with a nicely toasted bun, was so large that I had to squeeze it hard so that I could open my mouth wide enough to take a bite. The onion rings were great.

Kathy had the pulled pork sandwich with mushrooms. She said the sandwich was good and I can vouch for the mushrooms.

Friday night Andy & Kelsey took us to Colton's Steak House in Jefferson City. I was feeling a little puny and ended up having my steak with eggs for breakfast. It was good.

Last night and today have been much colder than what was forecast. Last night the low was 36 and today it never got above 40. Tonight's low is supposed to be 40, we will see.

Kathy and I watched part of the Nascar race on K&A's TV. There was a rain delay and I was just to hot to stay in the house any longer. I had to come out to the RV and cool down. Kathy is still inside working. She is tougher than me.

Andy went deer hunting this afternoon. He said he was going to get a deer, no matter what. Kelsey works 11 AM to 11 PM today.

I talked to Doug for awhile. He is busy with the kitchen/bath remodeling project he is doing for someone. He said they keep adding more work and are now talking about remodeling the master bath and possibly an addition in the spring. He said Anthony worked nearly 70 hours last week.

Drew's home buying is still in the works but the paperwork just keeps dragging on.

Our plan is to head for the WYAM base near Tyler, TX a week from Monday, to start volunteer work there.

I received an email from Dave Williams at Logan Creek. They finished up the exterior of the building I was helping with and are now finishing the inside.

Good evening to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 20th - Political Commentary - Super Committee Fails

There still appear to be US citizens who support Obama’s “raise taxes and have the Federal Reserve print more money for me to give away” fiscal policies. 

It appears that the deficit reduction “super committee” will fail; no shock. Their goal was to reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If they did nothing more than reduce federal spending to 2008 levels, the claimed deficit reduction would be $6-7 trillion. The self-serving scum in DC only care about raising taxes, increasing the size of government and getting re-elected.

Facts don’t seem to deter the support of the big spenders. The information below is from Obama’s 2010 budget proposal.

            Federal Spending   Defense Spending           Social Spending          Per Capita Spending

Year    as % of GDP               as % of GDP               as % of GDP (1)                     in 2010 dollars

1965                17.2                             7.4                               2.8                               $4,176

1970                19.3                             8.1                               4.5                               $5,365
2000                18.2                             3.0                               7.2                               $8,049
2010                25.4                             4.9                               12.5                             $11,920
(1)   Social spending does not include Social Security

If one looks at the data it is apparent that the major problem with the budget is the tremendous increase in welfare (social spending) over the past 45 years. In addition to Social welfare there is a lot of other welfare in the federal budget.  One example is Agriculture Department spending, it has increased from $4.0 billion in 1965 to $26.6 billion in 2010.  A substantial portion of this increase funds the massive welfare payments to farmers, many of whom enjoy a far higher standard of living than the average citizen. AMTRAK has been on the federal teat for 40 years, it has NEVER made a profit. In 2010 AMTRAK subsidies cost taxpayers $1.5 billion. I have read that it would cost taxpayers less money if we bought every interstate AMTRAK traveler a first class plane ticket.

With all the government programs rewarding negative behavior (become an unwed mother and get on the gravy train, buy more house than you can afford and get on the gravy train, stay unemployed and collect unemployment (welfare after the first year) for two years, etc.) it is no wonder that we see an increase in such behavior. (In conservative Indiana taxpayers now pay for over half of all births.) The most significant result of the massive increases in welfare spending is the development of an “entitlement mentality” underclass which actually believe that it is the governments job to take the income of one person and give it to them.

Welfare is only one example where massive cuts could be made in federal spending.  We no longer need a federal Department of Transportation, let the States handle their own road building. Reduce the federal gas tax to zero and let States increase their gas taxes as required. We certainly don’t need a federal Department of Education whose budget has increased from $14.0 billion in 1980 to $63.0 billion in 2010, unless maybe we actually believe that the people who run our State governments are to stupid to deal with education issues in their own states. The list of wasteful federal government spending goes on forever.

We absolutely don’t need higher taxes and more federal intervention. We need far lower federal spending and the transfer of power back to the States where it belongs.

Please write your Senators and Representative and tell them you support Senator Mike Lee’s balanced budget amendment. It would cap federal spending at 18% of the GDP and the support of two-thirds of Congress would be required increase this limit. Basically all this would require is that government go back to spending the same amount of the GDP that it did in 2000. This would allow the federal government to spend 49% more now than it did in 2000. How many of you think you could manage to survive this year if you could only spend 49% more than you did in 2000?

Nov 16th - Took the Day Off

We are about finished with installing/fixing the trim at K&A's. I still have some pieces to install in the bathroom, one area will be a real bear because a 12" piece of trim will need to be cut into 3, maybe 4, mitered pieces.

Yesterday I was able to get the TV coax cable run down and out the wall so that now I can close up the old attic access with a piece of drywall. I told K&A that I don't tape drywall so they either need to try doing it or get someone else to do it. After the taping is done I can put up the last piece of crown molding in the living room. That will finish all the trim work in the kitchen, dining room and living room.

Kelsey wants a ceiling light installed above the dining room table. I think she is going to buy a light/fan unit that is operated by a remote control so that it won't be necessary to run wires for a switch. I told her I'm not going up into the attic, but I will give guidance <grin>, grandpa's are such crotchety old farts.

We did some exploring today. We will need to dump our tanks and fill our propane tank before leaving for Tyler, Texas on the 28th. We found a great camping area at Binder Park near Jefferson City where we think we can dump our tanks. They have some nice sites and only charge $15/night to stay there, with full hook-ups. It appears that they have numerous walking trials and we (actually Kathy) say lots of different types of birds. I was focused on evaluating whether or not we could get into some of the campsites, I'm unable to multitask. We still aren't sure where we can get the propane tank filled, but we have some leads.

We did a little more house hunting. We parked in  front of the fantastic house on Woodlawn and walked around the block just to look at the neighborhood. Immediately south of the house the neighborhood doesn't appear to be that good, but on the other sides everything looked fine.

http://www.associatedrealestategroup.com/bin/web/real_estate?acnt=AR173624&ZKEY=&action=ACTIVATE_FRAMES&button=HOME_SEARCH&linkout_sourcepage=HOMEPAGE&tm=&linkout=http%3A%2F%2Fframing.usamls.net%2Fframing%2Fdefault.asp%3Ff_id%3DRU%255DZRT%255B%255BTRZ%255DUR

We really don't want to live in the city but this appears to be such an awesome home that we are having a tough time rejecting it. So far we have resisted the temptation to tour it but we are close to giving in.

It is priced above what we want to spend and we would have to build a garage (the carport just isn't acceptable), but the listing price is less than what we cleared on the sale of our home in Lebanon.

It is supposed to get down to 25 degrees tonight, with some snow flurries before morning. That will match our coldest night while living in the RV. After that the lows are forecast to be above freezing through next Tuesday night.

Time to say goodnight. May God bless you and yours.

Nov 16th - Political Commentary - Will Dem Voters Buy This Crap?

A group of 21 millionaires went to DC today to urge Congress to increase their taxes. It was an obvious publicity stunt but I bet there will be a lot of Democratic voters who actually will be impressed by such a stupid display.

Does anyone believe that these millionaires are actually saying, “We are to stupid to distribute our money to help others; so would you, the Federal government take it away from us and waste it like you already do with trillions of taxpayers dollars.” What they really believe is, “There are other people out there who believe they can make better decisions about how to spend THEIR money that the Feds, we need to tax them and regulate them to the point where every individualistic tendency is beaten out of them.”

Grover Norquist had a great piece of wisdom for them , "If you think the federal government can spend your money better than you can, then by all means pay more in taxes than you owe. The IRS should have a little line on the form where people can donate money to the government just like the tip line on a restaurant receipt."

One of the bozo millionaires suggested that if Norquist wanted low taxes and less government, "Renounce your American citizenship and move to Somalia where they don't collect any tax." It isn’t the Norquists who are trying to change our nation. It is the people who want to grow government to the point where it controls everything. If those millionaires want to live in a socialist/communist mecca then THEY need to relocate.

In 1970 when Johnson started his “War on Poverty” the federal government spent less than $5,400 per US citizen, in inflation adjusted 2010 dollars. In 2010 it spent $12,000 per US citizen. I simply can not understand why any person would think we should give the federal government more of our money. They have proven time after time that they will only use our money to get themselves re-elected. Maybe by giving it to their buddies at Solyndra or maybe by creating an entire class who actually now believe that it is governments job to reward them for every stupid decision they make in life.

How did Ayn Rand get it so right in her 50's book titled Atlas Shrugged. It was a difficult read for me but I urge all of you to pick up a copy from your local library and read it. It says so much about what is happening in the United States today.

Nov 14th - Political Commentary - MSM at it again

This morning I picked up a Jeff City paper and was looking through it while eating breakfast. It took virtually no time to pick up the pro-Obama tilt. "In a rare tangible achievement from the annual Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, President Barack Obama, said Saturday he was optimistic that work on the American-backed trade pact, dubbed the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the U.S. and eight other countries, could result in a legal framework by next year." I saw nothing in the remainder of the article that sounded positive. China is described as being "unenthusiastic" about the pact. The article says that after 10 years of "costly and so far unfruitful talks" the World Trade Organization can't get anything done because of "unbridgeable differences between the United States and major developing countries such as India, China and Brazil". Had Bush made such a baseless comment the press would have justifiably torn him apart; Obama gets a pass from them.

Another interesting Obama comment was his knocking China for their "favoritism toward state-run enterprises." Obama wants the State to take control of everything and he is knocking the Chinese for being further along that path of being a totalitarian state.

Do the State run mortgage giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, etc cause anyone to believe anything other than that the Feds plan on taking over the entire mortgage industry, if not the entire economy?

In 2010 the FHA insured/guaranteed 40% of ALL mortgages. In 2006 the figure was only 4.5%. In 2006 we taxpayers, through FHA, guaranteed $70 billion worth of home purchase mortgages, in 2010 we are on the hook for $319 billion. Nearly 1 in 10 FHA backed mortgages are in trouble. The foreclosure rate of FHA mortgages is over 10 times higher than it was in the 50's.

FHA has insured so many bad mortgages that they are about to run out of money. Congress requires that they must maintain a cash reserve equal to a minimum of 2% of the amount they have guaranteed. As with any government run institution rules are used only to make points with taxpayers, not to be enforced if they become inconvenient. Currently the FHA only has reserves of around 0.5% of guaranteed mortgages. Instead of Congress stopping them from guaranteeing more and more mortgages they are allowing the FHA to run wild.

Nov 13th - Political Commentary - Gov't Pleads with Criminals

Watch Europe if you want to see our future. Remember last year when the French authorities allowed roving gangs to burn hundred of cars, over a period of weeks? The authorities just stood by until the rioters apparently got tired of destroying the property of others.

We are now seeing that start in the United States. Of course it started some time ago when, in a similar vein, US authorities started the practice of refusing to obey our Constitution and do something about illegal aliens. So far “We the People” have let them get away with not only the Federal governments refusal to enforce the Constitution, but now, under Obama, the Feds are actively preventing States from trying to protect their citizens from illegal aliens.

The latest example of governments refusal to “serve and protect” law abiding citizens is the way governments are treating the Occupy protesters. Even the most active local governments only make a few token couple of arrests now and then. My guess is that those arrested are back on the streets before the cops finish the paperwork. They probably end up with, at the most, a light slap on the wrist from some liberal judge.

The following Huff Post headline is indicative of the ridiculous, coddling stance of politically correct politicians, “Oakland Police Plead For Occupy Protesters To Leave After Shooting Death”. Will politically correct liberal politicians soon be ordering police to start “pleading” with thieves to quit stealing or murderers to quit killing people?

Oakland is a prime example of what is happening in other areas with Occupy protesters. Soon some people/groups will start speaking up about taking the law in their own hands. We will then have politically correct politicians wringing their hands and  threatening these people with criminal prosecution if they have the guts to start protecting themselves and their property. We all know who the potential vigilantes are, they are the people who Obama described when he said, "And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Damn straight that we need to cling to our guns, etc because it is a certainty that politicians, bureaucrats, etc are not going to allow the police to protect us.

Chicl Tallman, a 63 year old accountant is one of the protesters. He says, “we’re fed up with the direction the country is going. It’s all about profit.” I challenge Mr. Tallman to get of his butt and do something productive. Why doesn’t he start his own non-profit accounting business? Certainly it is not because of a lack of support. How much is it costing someone to support all these protesters? Maybe those who are supporting the protesters don’t really want them to do something productive. They much  prefer telling the protesters that they should not have to work to support themselves, that is the job of big government. Protesters just want to lay around and let government force someone productive to support them.

Be sure to support, and vote for, all Civil Libertarian candidates in the upcoming elections. We are about to see the true colors of the Republicans on more big government. They don’t have the guts to rein in the MASSIVE increases in spending that have occurred under Bush and Obama. They will tax us to death if we allow them to do so.

Nov 12th - Political Commentary - More Change

According to Obama US citizens should no longer have any expectation of privacy if they travel on public highways. The government wants the Supreme Court to allow the government to put a GPS tracking device on anyone's car, without a warrant, so that they can track their movements. Justice Stephen Breyer told the governments lawyer, "If you win this case then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States." He further stated, "You suddenly produce what sounds like 1984."

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need more money. Some of it will no doubt go to pay the millions in bonuses they are  handing out. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government controlled mortgage companies that guarantee mortgages for people who no sane lending institution would give a loan. Fannie says it needs another $7.8 billion from we taxpayers. Last week it report a quarterly loss of $5.1 billion. No doubt Barney Frank will make sure Fannie gets all the money it asks for. This will bring the Fannie bailout total to $112.6 billion. Freddie ask for another $6 billion, after reporting a quarterly loss of $4.4 billion. It has now received $72.2 billion from we taxpayers. We taxpayers get stuck for nearly $200 BILLION, and that figure will no doubt keep rising, and Fannie and Freddie are handing out bonuses to their executives. The President's press secretary said the President in not involved in this, nor should he be. Isn't if funny that Obama had no problem raising hell about the Wall Street guys getting bonuses but when it comes to government run entities handing them out he thinks it is none of his business.

Nov 9th - Today's Political Events

It is now quite obvious that John Morton, Obama appointed him to run ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) is blatantly derelict in his duty to enforce the law. Last July, Chris Crane, president of the union that represents ICE officers, told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration that officers were being told not to arrest illegal aliens. EVEN IF THEY WERE FUGITIVES EVADING DEPORTATION ORDERS! Mr. Crane has since provided copies of emails that seem to support his testimony. More Obama “change”, blatant disregard for his DUTY to enforce the Constitution.

Perhaps Obama is to busy to be bothered with such things as illegal immigration. Last Tuesday his minions announced that a new tax was going to be imposed on Christmas trees. The Obama folks needed a source of income so that they could put yet more people on the Federal payroll by starting a new “board” that would be tasked with promoting Christmas trees. Could someone point out to me in which Article and Section of the Constitution did “We the People”  give the Feds the power to get involved in Christmas tree sales. After hearing all the laughter about such a stupid proposal, Obama has now told his people to trash the tax. Guess he will have to find some other way to get more folks on the Federal payroll, sucking up our dollars.

Excerpt from email from Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (George is a BIG Obama donor), to Steve Mitchell, manager of Argonaut Private Equity, “they about had an orgasm in Biden’s office when we mentioned Solyndra”. Excerpt from follow up reply from Mitchell to Levit, “That’s awesome! Get us a (Department of Energy) loan.” Isn’t Biden the one who said the way to keep from going bankrupt was to borrow more?  The Solyndra fiasco cost taxpayers $500 million (I bet the actual cost to taxpayers will be well over a billion dollars once the cost of all the litigation, fact finding, etc is done). This guy (Biden) can’t possibly be this financially stupid, can he?

Obama is still trying to kill the TransCanadian pipeline. Rumors are that he has ordered the State Department to conduct yet another environmental impact study. The new study could delay the project another 2 years, if it doesn’t kill it. The environmental impact study already completed by the State Department came up with the wrong answer. It found that the project would pose only limited adverse environmental impacts. The pipeline would carry 700,000 barrels of Canadian oil to US refineries every day. Guess Obama would rather the Arabs get our oil money.

Over the past 2 years District of Columbia police have arrested more than 3,400 drivers for expired license plates or driving unregistered vehicles. Proportionally that would be about the same as 40,000 Indiana drivers. DC’s solution to their crime problem fits right in with the way they run the place. The DC Council just passed legislation to end the practice of arresting people for these infractions. No doubt they will soon order police officers to attend sensitivity training, to be sure they don’t hurt criminals feelings by arresting them.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are such fine people. Sexual assaults are occurring frequently enough that there is now a “woman’s only” tent in Manhattan. Also in Manhattan a business owner has claimed that she has been terrorized by “Occupiers” because she stopped them from bathing in the restroom in her business. Another Manhattan business owner is also fed up with “Occupiers” using the restroom in her business. They had previously caused $3,000 damage to the restroom. Near the “Occupy” camp in San Diego street cart vendors were forced to close up shop Monday when protesters ransacked and vandalized their carts. The protesters were mad because they stopped getting free food. Are politicians ever going to let the cops start enforcing laws?

Nov 9th - Trim Work

We didn't do a lot yesterday. It rained most of the day. We did make a trip into Jefferson City to get a specialty RV bulb and a length of potable water hose from an RV place. We also went to Lowe's and bought 1x6's to do trim work at Kelsey and Andy's.

Today Kathy painted, did laundry, cooked, etc, etc. I did the trim work around the opening between the living room and dining room. I also got some of the trim up around the opening between kitchen and the living room.

It was windy and felt cold here this morning. It will actually be much colder tonight. The low is forecast to be below freezing tonight. Tomorrow nights low is supposed to be near freezing but then it is supposed to warm up some.

Kelsey has been working 7 PM - 7 AM but has tonight off. Andy has been working his normal day job and then installing leather seats in the evenings. Monday he didn't make it home until well after midnight. Last night he made it home by around 10 PM. He should be a little earlier tonight but it is 7:30 and he isn't here yet.

Time to watch a little TV and then go to bed.

Good night, may God bless you and yours.

Nov 7th - Electrical Hat Today

Today I wore my electricians hat. After a trip to a couple of stores, more on that later, I changed out the entry panel in Kelsey & Andy's garage. The existing box was only an old two fuse box, but it was fed by 3- #8's. I installed a 100 amp panel, the #8's aren't good for 100 amp but it was cheap and the #8's are on a breaker in the main panel in their house. The new panel had space for a 30 amp 220v breaker for an outlet for "shore power" for our RV. Previously we were only plugged in with an extension cord. I limited the draw on the cord to 15 amps. It was enough for lights and keeping the house batteries charged. Now we have 30 amps on each of two 120 volt legs. It isn't enough to provide full capacity for everything running at once but it will be more than adequate for our needs while we are here.

The charger on my Hitachi cordless tools quit working while in Logan Valley. I called Hitachi, told them I bought the tool set last April and they told me to take the charger to any service center and exchange it for a new one. I checked their web site for service centers and found the address of "The Tool Barn" in Barnett, MO, about 13 miles from our granddaughters. We drove over there this morning. It is in the middle of nowhere! I walked in, told them my problem, showed them my receipt for the cordless tools, which I had purchased from Costco, and the guy grabbed a new charger off a rack and handed it to me. Check the place out at http://www.toolbarnllc.com/ and yes the place looks like the photo.

Saturday night at supper Elaine, Kelsey's mother-in-law, told us about some stores over in the area of The Tool Barn. When we left we went on west another mile or so and found the Dutch Country Store.

Below is the road we drove to get back to the store.

 This is the store. I'm not sure what is in the building on the right.

 Employee benefits include a stable for your horse and garage to park your buggy.

It was an interesting place to go.

It rained on and off most of today but that was okay because I mostly worked in the garage. Tomorrow I plan on wearing my carpenter's hat while starting some trim work in the house.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Nov 6th - Political Commentary - Greek Debt Default - War?

I was just reading an article about worst case scenarios for Greece. In the mind of many economists the worst thing that could occur, for the Greek people, would be for Greece to decide to leave the European Union. If it did that there would be no way for it to repay the massive debts run up by the government. The government would have to start printing its own money. Who outside of Greece would want to be paid in currency of a country that just went bankrupt?

I have always considered the formation of the European Union to be somewhat similar to what happened in our nation when some of the original free, independent nations of North America voted to form a central government to take care specific things; i.e. common defense against foreign aggression, settling disputes between the nation states, etc. When several of those states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the Union the remaining group went to war to against them and plundered them. It was called the Civil War.

Anyone wonder if the European Union will go to war against Greece, if Greece decides it wants out? I actually doubt that would happen because I don't think Greece brings that much to the European Union table. The South brought money, and a lot of it, into the Federal government. The South imported a lot of goods (much more than the North), and the "United States" taxed the heck out of imports. The majority of that money was spent developing the northern states. Northern businessmen and politicians went to war to keep the cash stream flowing. The result of their greed was the deaths of over 600,000 Americans.

PLEASE don't tell me that the war was about slavery. Read Lincoln's famous Emancipation Proclamation. He only freed the slaves in the South, in hopes that they would take up arms against the Southerners. Ulysses Grant's (the north's most famous general) family still owned slaves after the end of the Civil War, technically his wife owned them. Andrew Johnson, the President AFTER Lincoln still owned slaves after the Civil War. James Buchanan, the President before Lincoln, didn't own slaves because he called them "indentured servants." I'm sure a search of Congressman who voted to go to war to prevent the south from seceding, would show that some of them, if not many, owned slaves.

Nov 5th - Russellville, MO

We left Logan Valley Christian Retreat late morning last Thursday and moved to Kelsey and Andy's (our granddaughter & her husband) in Russellville.

We had a good time while at Logan Valley Christian Retreat. We had the good fortune to meet many interesting people. A big benefit to me was that I was able to improve my carpentry skills while working on the new building.

Thursday evening/night I drove to Coldwater, MI for a quick visit with family members and to take care of some business. Today I drove back. Nearly 1200 miles round trip. I look forward to tomorrow, the Sabbath, being a "day of rest."

An interesting thing happened while driving in the Odel/Dwight, IL area. On Thursday night I saw hundreds, if not thousands. of red lights that seem to flash at the same time. On the way back today my suspicion that the lights were associated with wind generators proved to be true. There must be around a 1,000 wind mills in that area. I can't even begin to guess how much they cost us taxpayers in subsidies. I did a quick web search and came up with nothing. The Feds, and tree huggers, absolutely do not want information on the true cost of wind power to "leak out" to the general public.

This evening Kelsey and Andy invited David & Elaine (Andy's Mom & Dad), Amy & Melissa (Kelsey's Mom & sister), and Kathy and I for supper. A good time was had by all, or at least by me <grin>.

I only did a temporary set up of the RV so tomorrow I need to install a 50 amp outlet in the garage and maybe hook up the water. We will also need to scout around for a place where we can dump our sewer tanks when they get full, maybe on Monday.

Nov 1st - It Didn't Get Below Freezing!!!

Last  night the low was 32 degrees here, it didn't actually get below freezing. Weatherbug consistently show low temperatures that are at least 10 degrees higher than what we have experienced while being in Logan Valley. Bruce, the carpenter who I've been working with, says that is normal. He told us that the winter low temperatures in the valley are always significantly (10-15 degrees) colder than they are in Ellington. Weatherbug claimed that the low last night was 50 degrees. Maybe it was in Ellington, less than 10 miles from here.

Ellington's low is forecast to be 41 tonight so before bed I will be going out to turn off the water, disconnect the softener and bring it into the RV.

This morning Kathy did more door painting. In the afternoon she went to check out Poplar Bluff and buy a few things we wanted/needed. Poplar Bluff is an hours drive from here and is the closest reasonably large town.

Bruce, David & I put the sheathing on the building gable ends, ripped the remaining two sheets of roof metal to width and installed them, and put up some more "nailing strips" for the metal siding. Those two do most of the ladder work. I just cut boards and work as the gopher.

If it isn't quite so windy tomorrow Bruce wants to get the ridge cap installed. After that the building will be pretty much enclosed. The three window and one door opening will still be open but plastic could be stuck over them when it rains. Actually it wouldn't take much work to stick the windows in the openings.

Tomorrow Bruce wants to get the rest of the nailing strips installed, as well as the trim piece at the bottom of the siding that is supposed to keep out varmints. We will also need to do finish measurements so that the metal siding can be ordered.

Today's work wasn't so physically demanding but I will be ready for bed in a few hours <grin>.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.