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.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, November 7, 2011
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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.
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.
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