SB-81 passes. Governor Brown is expected to sign it.

From The Sacramento Bee:
"In Tuesday's hearing, Republicans and Democrats representing rural areas joined together to lobby for SB 81, which only applies for the remainder of this school year. The bus cut was triggered when state forecasters determined last month that California would fall $2.2 billion short of a $4 billion tax revenue bump that Brown and lawmakers assumed in the 2011-12 state budget.

"It's a catastrophic problem in my district and in many other rural parts of California," said Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, who represents the North Coast area. "Eliminating the school bus system creates dangerous situations for many children in California, but for my district it means it would be impossible for many children, if not most children in some districts, to attend school at all."

The cut would have hit some rural districts particularly hard. According to data compiled by the California School Boards Association, the isolated Death Valley Unified School District would lose $1,734 per student this spring. Meanwhile, many suburban districts would lose less than $10 per student.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/01/jerry-brown-lawmakers-back-bill-protecting-california-school-bus-money.html#storylink=cpy

School Bus, or, the missing link.

While most people are reasonable and understanding, some are remarkably small minded and selfish. The recent school bus transportation crisis is a good (bad) example. Some of the small minded and selfish people are saying that Southern Humboldt parents are greedy in wanting their children transported to school at taxpayers expense. Most of these comments are coming from an area that just took the money that was going to be spent to repave Garberville’s Redwood drive. They intend to spend it to make the “safety corridor” between Eureka and Arcata “safer”.


“Stip” money is used to spend on needed road improvements. However, it is more often stolen to help balance the state budget. Mendocino spreads their stip money throughout the county, like Laytonville’s new sidewalks, street lighting, and brick crosswalks. Also Cloverdale, and Fort Brag have had many improvements. The county seat, Ukiah, has not used as much of this funding as the rest of the county. But, Eureka seems to soak up most all of the stip funding. Just recently the board of supes just gave them the money to improve the safety corridor. It seems that they feel justified because Garberville has an “underground economy” that should take care of those things. WRONG! We have no control, nor any vote on how the underground economy spends their money.

Garberville’s only resource is through our elected officials. If they take the money away from road projects and School Bus transportation we simply will not get any. Our elected officials should be taking care of Garberville, and they are NOT. To be fair Garberville pays more than it’s fair share already. Southern Humboldt pays @80% of the Humboldt County Bed tax. Plus the “underground economy” feeds the whole county. Like it or not, if you live in Humboldt you are part of the underground economy. Marijuana is a major supplier of the new money coming into, and feeding our county’s wealth. I don’t use marijuana, never have, never will. I don’t grow marijuana, never have never will. But, the fact remains that we are almost totally dependant upon it. The clear thinking people will realize that fact. Like it or not.

Now, let’s get back to the “unfairness” ditty. How many times have we heard people say that “if you want services, you should live in town?” Isn’t a little two faced to slap the face of the very people that provides the cities with most of their wealth. The timber industry that supported the cities sure didn’t grow their trees in the city. Is it still okay to spend that money in the city? The tourists that come here to see the trees sure don’t see them in the city. They sure as heck don’t catch the fish in the city. The Eel river is a major source of tourism and sport fishing. Does it flow through your city? I mean other than the wealth that it brings into the county.

I know that it is, thankfully, only a small handful people that think that it is unfair to spend any tax money in the rural areas. But, darn, it is hurtful when people say that our roads and school children don’t deserve the tax money that mostly comes from rural industries. Isn’t it a little counter productive to have a Richardson Grove Park Ranger live in Eureka, just so they can send their kids to school? Doesn’t that end up using more road and gas money in the long run? People need to live in rural areas, it is out of the question for everybody to live in town. No offence, because I love Eureka, but I would wither and die if I had to live there. I love the sunshine and can barely make through a Garberville winter let alone continual dreary weather that some people love. How long do you think that those people would like to live in the 100 degree weather that I love?

Now, to get back to more unfairness directed toward rural folks. Just a few short years ago, we had a thriving timber industry, selective cut, sustained yield, and all that. We had small schools in every small town; Ettersburg, Fort Seward, Alderpoint. We even had a Southern Humboldt school in Eel Rock, we called it “The Eel Rock institute of higher learning”. I won’t go into all the reasons for the demise of the timber industry, but it happened through no fault of the people of Southern Humboldt. As the logging and lumber mills closed, it was deemed prudent to close the schools and bus the remaining children to school, thereby saving money in the long run. In fact it was mandated by the state that now doesn’t want to pay for the transportation to school.

Now back to a plea for understanding. We have no problem spending our money in the cities, we just want a little tit-for-tat. I don’t have any children in school, but I can see the wisdom in getting the kids to school so they can learn. They need transportation funding!

I know that some of you don’t know, but about 25% of the kids that come to school in Southern Humboldt come malnourished and under clothed. Tired, hungry, and cold is no way to learn anything. The Rotary club is doing what they can to make sure that the kids get fed. Other groups are helping clothe the kids. But without busing it is likely that they just won’t get to school. Now, you can moralize, point fingers of blame, and talk about all the problems, but when you get to the other side, almost all clear thinking people will realize that it is not the kids fault. And, if it makes you feel any better, I have personally witnessed the success of getting the kids to school. More than one of the kids, that might have given up, have gone on to become award winning students and even more than one have become foreign exchange students. Giving up on a kid, or their education is the worse possible thing to do!

Oh, by the way, don’t let the City’s business people hear you say that marijuana doesn’t bring them any money. I’m sure that they don’t want them to stop shopping in the city.

The Environment

I should start this post with the disclaimer that I am no expert in the field of ecology. But, I have an open, scientific mind, and believe strongly in facts, and I have seen much more history in the South Fork of the Eel Valley than most. All the branches of my father’s family have lived in the South Fork of the Eel since the 1850s. I’ve heard most all of the pioneer stories; some of them were actually true.

I like to consider myself to be an environmentalist, but I am more and more reluctant to group myself with some of those radical fuzzy thinkers out there that think that all you have to do to save a tree is simply love it. I find it amusing that the iconic redwood has become the symbol of saving a forest. The redwood tree is probably the most durable and healthy tree on the whole north coast. I would be the first to shed a tear over the thousands and thousand of old-growth trees that have already been cut, and I would be the first to agree that they cut way too many of the old-growth redwoods trees during Maxxam’s (and others) reign of destruction. However, there are still thousands and thousands of old-growth redwoods left, and indeed they need protection, but the millions of second growth trees that are now growing, are by far the healthiest trees on the north coast.

The Tan Oaks are suffering from sudden oak death, but so far it doesn’t seem to be as bad as we expected it to be. Some pepperwoods are also being sapped by sudden oak death. One of my favorite trees is the Maple tree that has the bright yellow leaves in the fall. If you look around you, you will discover that the redwoods out-number the maples by at least a thousand to one. The maple tree is mostly held back because it is a very tasty tree to squirrels and deer. Porcupines also love to strip the bark of the maple. As kids we would gather the winged seeds and throw them into the air to watch them slowly propeller-spin to the ground. On windy days we would go up on the windy ridge above my grandmother ranch and throw the winged seeds high into the air and watch them spin clear out of sight. I wonder how many maple trees that we planted as kids.

What made me start thinking about these kinds of things is a discussion that I read on another blog about how clear-cutting a redwood forest wouldn’t hurt the fish runs. I agree that it would be possible to grow even sized trees, then clear cut them, and haul then out without tearing up the ground with overhead cables. But, and this is a big but! There is far more to consider than simply the fish. Other critters are forest dwellers, and they might be impacted.

The total environment should always be considered. The flying squirrels, especially, live in old grow, and less than healthy trees. They nest in rotten cavities in the tree trunks, like only an old growth forest has. By selective cutting of harvestable trees, the old growth habitat can be maintained and valuable lumber can still be produced. The flying squirrel is just one thing to consider. There are many critters that live in a forest.

Being an environmentalist, I believe that the world is far too populated, seven billion people is way beyond a sustainable number of people. We may be able to feed and provide for that many people, with great co-operation and great care of the environment, but human nature and especially human greed will never allow the world to continue with that many people. Too many people is the worlds biggest crisis.

Having this many people means that we have to worry about what helps, and what hurts, the environment. Forest products are the best way to sustain the environment. Trees grow on sunshine, soil, and water. When they are cut and put into buildings, they are sequestering carbon. If you are somebody that is concerned about the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere, you should see the wisdom of using forest products. I believe that we can maintain a healthy forest by selective cutting and lumber production. All that it takes is to have some forest practice rules that consider ALL the environment, critters, fish, animals, plants, and yes….. Humans.

Sacramento Meeting with Noreen Evans and Wesley Chesbro

The following links are broadcasts done on Southern Humboldt school's trip to Sacramento.

KMUD broadcast on Southern Humboldt's visit to the Capitol
The link will take you to the archives. Scrool down the list until you come to "Local news, 6:00 PM edition" Tuesday January 24, 20012.
(The school issue starts about halfway through.)

This Broadcast is a report done By Lisa Morehouse who works for KQED


The photo is by Lisa Gribi. It is a thankfully fuzzy photo of me holding a sign walking in circles in front of the California State Capitol.

I wasn't part of the meetings inside the capitol with Senator Evans and Congressman Chesbro. We stayed outside and peacefully walked in circles. One of the demonstrators asked me if I was having fun, because I was doing a lot of smiling. It hadn't occurred to me before, that I was smiling. But I guess that I was. I was glad to see such a large turnout, because a few people that I know, who wanted to come, didn't make it. I estimate that there were around 300 people there. That is an outstanding turnout for a small community. To put it colloquial terms, that Southern Humboldt is so uniquely known for, the lady standing next to me said, "Wow! We don't have this many people show up to a spaghetti feed!" I knew most all of the people there, and most of the kids. It was about all the people that I thought might be there, plus a few that quite suprised me for being there.

Jim Baker and I had a talk about the history of the early settlement of the Sacramento Valley. It's much more fun when you can stand there and point out all the places. We get to talk about things that you just can't talk about without a deep background in California history. Some things just take too much explanation if you are not familiar with the players.

When the school reps came back outside, I was with Dennis O'Sullivan. When I looked to my right, Congressman Chesbro was approaching me. We shook hands and stared talking about how many people were there. Chesbro addressed the crowd and told us that he very much understood the bus situation and he was very much on our side. He told us that he expected the funding bills to pass but he was afraid that Governor Jerry Brown might veto them, but he was trying to get a personal meeting with the Governor to explain the dynamics of a small widely spread school district, and how very important busing was in so many ways.

As I was listening to him talk, I looked to my left and Senator Noreen Evans was standing beside me. Dennis O'Sullivan Introduced me, and I mentioned that Robin Shelley said to tell her hello. The Senator said that they were teen-age friends. I mentioned to the Senator that I used to do the refrigeration at A-1 Foods in Laytonville. She said that surely we had met before because she used to be a clerk there for her grandparents(?). Ain't small towns great? I told her that I was pleased that she understood small town dynamics. She replied that she was very familiar with small towns, and their people. It left me feeling like smiling a lot more. Robin has great taste in friends!

Evans echoed Chesbro in that they were on our side and they would try hard to fulfill our wishes. Evans said she had never seen such a large percentage of people from such a small town show up on the capitols steps. Wesley Chesbro said that he had listened to Lisa Morehouse's KQED's California Report and knew that other legislators had listened to it also, they mentioned that Chesbro's district was in the news that morning.

The other, most important thing that Chesbro said when he shook my hand, that he had read my blog this morning! I have witnesses! Eat your heart out Kym Kemp!

Branscomb,  Evans, O'Sullivan, and Chesbro. Photo by Lisa Music

More info at Lost Coast Outpost, Kym Kemp



e

Mr. and Mrs. B go to Sacramento.

Janis and I are going to go to Sacramento, along with about 200 other Southern Humboldt School District representatives.

From California watch:  In protest of state budget cuts that threaten school busing, representatives from the Southern Humboldt Unified School District are traveling to Sacramento to meet with their state lawmakers, Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Eureka, and Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa. The district anticipates a large turnout of students and families and welcomes other districts to join them.

"At Southern Humboldt Unified, Stewart hopes the district can siphon enough money from the classroom to provide some bus service, but it won't be "anything near" the 11 routes it offers now, he said. It also will consider charging students who are not low-income to ride the bus and ask families to carpool.
"There's really not many viable alternatives than, say, driving your kids to school," Stewart said. "When you talk about driving an hour to bring your kid to school and then you've got to drive an hour home, that's two hours, and you've got to repeat that in the afternoon. … We're talking a huge expense."
Stewart predicts that without bus service, attendance will fall, hurting funding even more.

"It's kind of a snowball," he said. "We can't get them here because we have no money, they can't get here, we have less money, and on and on." 

The school district is making a government field trip for the students out of the trip to Sacramento. I understand that the students are writing essays on why they should be chosen. A lot of parents and school representatives are going along. Long time school board member Dennis O'Sullivan and other school district officials will be meeting with Wes Chesbro. Other people involved with the trip to the capitol seem to be well organized. I, however, am still a little bit confused as to our function on the trip. I am deeply troubled by the damage that not having busing in southern Humboldt will do to our small tight-knit community. More on the damage later. I am going mostly to come up to speed on the possibility to save our community for certain disaster for some local families. It is heart wrenching, in these poor economic times, to see people losing their jobs. If nothing else, I want to go along to Sacramento to empathize with the people most affected. Like I said, I'm deeply troubled by the whole darn situation.

I understand that about 47 people have been given lay-off notices. I have heard that some of them have already found other jobs, but even if they have, that is a job that somebody else won't be getting. 47 families without employment is not good. The job loss has far reaching impact to the local business and housing prices.

The students that are being bused to school will have to find other means to get there. Some have drivers licenses, but they can't drive other kids until they are old enough to have passengers. So, students can't even give their siblings a ride to school. The students that have trouble getting to school anyway may drop out. Some parents may move closer to a school in another city, that won't help our struggling school district, they already have declining enrollment.

One other big problem that I see, is the kids that already come to school hungry and malnourished. They either come from poor or neglectful families. The community has already been providing a "back-pack" program for those kids. The back-packs are filled will nutritional food that gets them through the week. It's hard for a student to learn when they are hungry. I'm not sure what will happen to those kids if there is no way to get them to school.

I'm mostly discouraged by the fact that our politicians seem to have their own priorities and I have never seen much good come out of meeting with them. Maybe I'm cynical, so I'm going with a positive attitude that we can make a difference. I personally know many of the people losing their jobs. They are generous and caring people that have helped the community in so very many touching ways that I don't know where to even begin.  So, even though I don't have much hope, My wife and I owe it to these people to at least make a showing at Sacramento.

We are taking our own car, so we will be able to stop and go when we chose. Janis will take her camera and do some photo's for posterity. We don't intend to be in anybodies face. If the cops tell us to put the camera down, we will. I don't intend to risk Janis having her camera mistaken for a gun and slammed into her face like Felix Omai. And, I don't intend to be anywhere near pepper spray. If a cop tells me to "disperse" I will run in as many directions as I can. I am actually looking forward to the experience! If you are going, we'll see you there!

Gingrich rips John King

For those of you who missed it.

I don't know about you, but I am sick to death with debate forums that invite candidates to participate in a debate, then hold the candidates hostage to their own agenda. Whether you are Democrat, Republican, Independent or other, I think that it is time to discuss the issues and not the "issues". Knute probably won the hearts and minds of many Americans with his wise reply to a smutty question by John King. I liked the way that he didn't even give King an easy way out, but nailed his toes to the floor as he tried to squirm away.

For those of you who missed it click on the following video.........



ADDENDUM: More stupid questions. This one is from Fox News. I just wanted to prove that I'm "fair and balanced".:

Internet censorship?

                                                                                             
                                                                                            
                                                                                             
                                                                                            
                                                                                             
Go                                                                                        
                                                                                             
                                                                                            
                                                                                            
                                                                                            
                                                                                            
                                                                                            
                                                                                            
Ph                                                                                        
Photo by Kim Sallaway

          Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  for explaination.



E

Cozumel, Here we come!

I gave a peak preview in a post a while ago about going on a ten day vacation in March. We will be flying from Arcata to San Francisco on the little wind-up prop plane. I shouldn’t make fun of the plane because it is one of the most dependable workhorses in the small airline industry. It is a turboprop Brasilia. But, it has a lot of prop noise that gets right inside your head and rattles around. Anyway, it will take us to San Francisco, where we will board its big brother for a direct flight to Chicago. When we arrive in Chicago, we will be about as far away from our destination as we were in San Francisco. So, then we will board a plane for Fort Lauderdale Florida. The flights are all as cheap as we can get, so the accommodations are crowded and the seats are hard a concrete, the good thing is it is all free… more later.

Then, we will rest in Fort Lauderdale for a day, then board a cruise ship to Belize, a small country just south of the Yucatan peninsula.  From Belize we will cruise to Cozumel Mexico. Then back to Florida. The cruise ship accommodations will be the lap of luxury, we will almost be able to forget the airplane rides.

Now the great part, the trip is all paid for by Radio Shack. My wife is a Radio Shack dealer, and she earned an “Incentive Trip”. That is where, if you meet certain goals, you earn points toward the trip. It’s kind of like a class average grading system, but it’s based mostly on sales. We look good because our sales were within the goal standards, and the other Radio Shack stores didn’t do as well, so we came out on top of the heap. It’s more than just a little humbling to be winning a trip. When we bought the Sears Catalogue Store in 1974, Sears was the number-one retailer in the United States and had been for a few years. Sears started their steady decline through mismanagement, and we got to enjoy the agony of the steady slide downhill. A man by the name of Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) helped Sears with their fall from grace. It was difficult to be a part of the decline. All of the managers that we dealt with were inflexible, and were quick to point out that they were the number-one retailers, and they knew what they were doing, so, the problem with sales must surely be you!

We struggled with sales the whole time that we owned the store. We actually did fairly well, and we were one of their better stores. We even won a set of luggage one year as an incentive prize. But, Sears continued to bottom-out until one morning we came to work and turned on the television display just are they were announcing that all of the Sears Catalogue stores were closed. We had leases, bills and NO business. We were able to hold on long enough to open a Radio Shack. I won’t bore you with the many sad details of moving from a Sears Store to a Radio Shack. We made way less for a while but we won a trip to Hawaii the first year. Eventually the store started making money and we have traveled most all over the near world on Incentive trips. London, Switzerland, Ireland, Bermuda, Hawaii, Alaska and more. This year, Cozumel and Belize.

The trips that we take, we could actually leave our money at home. All travel, accommodations, luggage handling and meals are provided. They pick you up at your door and take you back to your door. In our particular case “Our Door” is Arcata. Like in, “You live where???” Garberville??? Is that really a place??

I wanted to study a little bit about the culture of the places that we would be visiting, so I would know what to look for. The first place that I started to research was Fort Lauderdale. There were three Fort Lauderdales. One up river at the forks, until it was destroyed. Then one at half way between the forks and the ocean. Then the last Fort was at the ocean. Something about three different Seminole Indian wars. The Seminole Indians were never defeated by the white guys. I also found out that some of the Seminole Indians were actually blacks. They had slavery in the southern states of the Mississippi delta hundreds of years before the California Gold Rush. When a slave would escape they would head deep into the swamps to avoid being recaptured. They eventually formed alliances with the Seminole Indians. Some of them even formed marriages, and made babies. So I have a jumping off point to study the history and culture. It sounds interesting.

By the time I get to Belize, I’m sure that I will know what I want to study there. Spyrock already gave me some tips. Thanks Spy! I know that In Cozumel, back in the 1500s you could buy a wife for 200 coco beans. Coco is still the way to my wife’s heart. Maybe I will go on a coco bean trading expedition!

Bu.. buu... but, what happened to global warming???

(CNN) -- A Coast Guard icebreaker and a tanker carrying 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products could arrive in icebound Nome, Alaska, as early as Thursday, the Coast Guard said.

The Sitnasuak Native Corp. of Nome contracted the double-hulled, Russian-flagged tanker Renda to deliver the fuel products to the community of 3,600 on Alaska's west coast after ice formed over the Bering Sea in the wake of a ferocious November storm that prevented the last delivery of the season via barge.

The U.S. Coast Guard's only operating Arctic icebreaker, the Cutter Healy, is escorting the fuel tanker through the ice-covered waters in the first-ever attempt to supply fuel to an Arctic Alaska settlement through sea ice.

A two-ship convoy was 97 miles from Nome early Tuesday, Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, told CNN. The convoy could arrive late Thursday or early Friday.

The Healy battled through 50 miles of ice Monday, she said, stopping for crew rest and maintenance around 7:30 p.m.

During the journey, the Healy has broken through ice ridges as high as 4 feet and plate ice up to 2 feet thick, Coast Guard Capt. Craig Lloyd, who is coordinating the mission, told CNN.

Nome's mayor told CNN she was hopeful the ships meet the current schedule, but "ice is dynamic" and could slow their arrival. Officials also want to ensure the operation is done safely, Mayor Denise Michels said.

"People are excited here in town. This is big news for us," said Michels.

Tuesday's low was around 25 degrees below zero, another shivering day in a cold snap that descended on Nome.

Francis said unmanned aircraft from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks equipped with ground-penetrating radar had flown over the ice between the ships and Nome and determined it is thinner than what the ships had been through so far.

The ships will have to break through about 300 miles of ice during the complete journey, the Coast Guard said. The tanker will get to within about a half-mile of Nome harbor and transfer the fuel stocks to on-shore storage by hose, the Coast Guard said.

Lloyd said Nome had enough fuel to last until about March, but the delivery was attempted now because it would have been even more difficult then.

The village of Noatak, near the Arctic Circle, also has reported fuel shortages, officials said.

Other towns and villages in the state are coping with separate weather-related problems and heavy snow.

Cordova, an isolated coastal town of about 2,000 people some 150 miles east of Anchorage, was one of the hardest-hit locales, with the state National Guard sending Guardsmen and resources after weeks of record snowfall left the city buried under an 18-foot wintry blanket.

Cordova is "isolated off the state highway system," according to the National Guard, and the sea and airport are the only ways in and out of the area.

The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said 50- to 60-mph wind gusts and 18 more inches of snow to Cordova came Monday night and early Tuesday. Officials are worried about the threat of avalanches near the town's airport.
The oil port of Valdez also was coping with heavy snow loads.

In a normal year, Cordova and Valdez get about 300 inches of snow. "We have received that not in a season but the last 60 days," said John Madden, director of the state emergency department.

About 75 military personnel and civilians were assisting Cordova, with a focus first on clearing roads for emergency vehicles and ensuring homes occupied by the elderly and families with children don't suffer roof collapses from all the snow.
Two commercial structures collapsed and two boats top-heavy with snow turned over there, Madden said.

Valdez and Cordova are among the most-prepared cities in the nation for nasty weather, Madden told CNN. They have extensive plans and hold cold-weather exercises.

But "even with all their best efforts, they are falling behind," Madden said.

A storm and two avalanches, meanwhile, prompted state highway officials to close Seward Highway between Potter Marsh and Girdwood, southeast of Anchorage.

State of the weather, Jan 2012

Mark Twain said “We all grumble about the weather….but nothing is done about it”. We have been having a very sunny, but cold, winter. My grandmother Ruby always said that, “A dry winter is a cold winter”. The weather has been a sure topic to get a response lately. Try saying something like, “wow, what a beautiful day”. If you are in a crowd, everybody will have a different remark. I was by a person the other day when the thought that we were having wonderful weather was mentioned, he actually got angry. He said that “if we don’t start getting some rain, it is going to be a disaster.” Than he went on to ramble something about fish runs and gardens and not to mention drinking water. Most people are slightly worried, but they don’t let it ruin an otherwise nice day.

Justt for the record, (if I had access to records) we’ve had dry winters before. Sometime in the early ‘70s, we had 22 inches of rain, shortly thereafter we had over 100 inches. In 1964 we had snow in May, the river dried up that summer to the lowest flow that the south fork ever recorded, then that winter we had the worse flood in recorded history.

In the early ‘70s we had temperatures so cold that it froze and broke the fire hydrants in Redway. Every exposed pipe, and some not so exposed, froze and broke. It was a plumbers nightmare. So be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

Back in history the world weather got so warm that people moved from Europe to Greenland. Greenland was so warn and fertile that they grew produce and grain there. They had many years of competition free prosperity. Then the mini ice-age hit. Greenland froze over. Most people starved, the rest made it back to Europe.

Ten thousand years ago the Great Lakes of America were covered with a glacier. The British Isles were also covered with ice. Global warming happened very rapidly between then and now. The only reason that I mentioned that is because I don’t think that mankind had anything to do with the global warming that melted the Great Lakes and defrosted England. But it did happen. As I said, it got so warm that they farmed Greenland. But, for some strange reason it all reversed and the world got cold again. We are on a warming cycle again, the world weather is changing. I think that we are just too comfortable taking all the blame for the weather warming.

I was looking at a chart of Antarctica the other day. The chart showed areas in brilliant red shade, that were melting, and the ice was disappearing. In the same chart, in a very faint light blue color it showed the areas where the ice was gaining and getting deeper. I thought at the time, if the colors were exchanged, and the light blue was change to brilliant red and the red was changed to light blue, it would have looked like a very dramatic increase in the ice thickness.

When I was a kid I used to pick mussels on a rock at shelter cove. We would take a twelve foot long board with us as a bridge to get out on that rock. When I go out to that same rock today. I never have any trouble getting out to it. So, either the sea level hasn’t risen, or the world has raised it out of the ocean. The sea seems to have dropped at least a foot. Shelter Cove may have lifted in elevation from some of the earthquakes. Plus, I don’t think that Shelter Cove is in the subduction zone of plate tectonics. If it is, it is on the side of the San Andreas fault that would be diving, because the fault line is east of the cove at the base of the mountain.

So, there is just a lot about the weather that I just don’t know. But like Mark Twain said. Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

Annoying “Biggest stories of 2011”

Annoying “Biggest stories of 2011”
Hmmm… If the Biggest Stories of 2011 were really that big, wouldn’t you already know about them??? I secretly suspect at the end of the year news-people have kicked back just a little bit too much and got into the party spirit just a little too much. Sometime between Christmas and New-Years they have a few moments of sober thought. Their thoughts are probably filled with “Oh crap, it’s almost the end of 2011 and I haven’t gathered any news! I know! I’ll just reprint all of last years big stories!, There, I’m done. I think that I will just go sit on the couch and sip some more holiday cheer.”

Who was it that said “there is nothing more stale than yesterdays news”. Yep, that’s how I feel about it too. Especially when the best that some local news services can do is bring you the latest traffic accidents, or where they had a fire last night, probably the best story last year was where Channel-3 from Eureka did a forced interview on; “Who pooped and peed on the bank?” (they never did find out). I was always told that a lawyer or a news anchor-person was never supposed to ask a question unless they already knew the answer.

Sometimes I wish they would tell us things like “Why the Eureka officials kept the fact that Wall-Mart was coming to town such a big secret.” That would interest the heck out of me. How does it happen that a town that knows everything, and can’t keep even a small secret, keep the fact that a frickin’ Wal-Mart is coming to the Bayshore Mall. You’d think that would be important for people to know! I would have to call that one of the “biggest unreported stories of 2011”.

I know, people on welfare will care little about how the economy will be affected. And who can blame them? They need to stretch their dollars as far as they can. Then there are the poor school teachers that barely make a living, they will shop there. Actually anybody that likes to get a good bargain will shop there. You will probably even find me shopping there. But I know full well that Wal-mart will kill Eureka. Talk about “Giant sucking sounds” Wal-Mart is the suckiest. Those of us in the know, know that Chinese products will always be better and cheaper, because China keeps the value of the currency below ours. And… The big one, they don’t have any environmental restrictions.

Believe me, nobody works harder than the American worker. Those that still have jobs are being worked to death. What’s up with that? Either you don’t have a job, or you work too hard. So, China doesn’t outwork us! Should there be some news service telling us why Chinese products are cheaper than ours? Shouldn’t somebody tell us why all of our jobs, and money have moved to China? Shouldn’t some news service tell us why we are losing more and more jobs every day? Shouldn’t they tell us why we can’t afford to bus our kids to school? Why we can’t support a family with a job like we used to be able to do? Why our jobs get poorer? Why can’t we just go out and find just any job? Why dosen’t the news services tell us, in depth, how America is being sucked dry, so the average person can understand it. Maybe they could even make it interesting. Clue one and two; China Manipulates the value of the money to keep dollars flowing to their shores. They don’t have environmental restrictions.

Let’s see. How many of us know that they were going to pave Garberville’s Redwood drive, but our supervisor gave the money away to fix the road between Eureka and Arcata? What??? You say. "Garberville hasn’t been paved since the trees were planted and the power lines were undergrounded." You remember when they did that don’t you? Harry Pritchard was the supervisor. You remember him don’t you? Why didn’t we know about the money give away until it was practically a done deal. I wouldn’t have even known about the money being given away if it weren’t for Mark Lovelace saying something like, “I think that we should ask the people of Garberville how they feel about this”. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to scream bloody murder in time, so OUR Dist 2 Supervisor Clif Clendenen gave out road money to throw on the “Safety Corridor” between Eureka and Arcata.

Most people don’t have the time to decide how to spend county money. They split the county into 5 supervisor districts, and then they elect 5 supervisors to watch-out for our interests. How the heck does giving Garberville street money to Eureka and Arcata represent us in-any-way! ???

I would expect the Eureka and Arcata supervisors to vote to fix the corridor, and they did. I would expect the other two supervisors to be somewhat ambivalent, because it was a toss-up benefit for them, but they voted AGAINST it. But, OUR supervisor, who has the most rural roads in the whole county, voted to give road money to the most expensive nightmare in Humboldt. Plus, it is highway 101! A state highway. The state has other means of raising money. The county doesn’t. Where is the news service that explains this to us? Who was it that said that “It is time to sharpen our pitchforks?

But, what do we get for news? A rehash of last years traffic accidents, fires and marijuana busts.
Thank God for blogs!

On the lighter side, My wife and I had a very good year in business and in health. We are very happy with everything but the state of our government. Well… it’s little disappointing that we no longer have a newspaper delivered to Garberville, but, the great side is that I didn’t have to read “Biggest stories of 2011”. And we are going to lose the school busses that bussed our children to school. I don’t even see a small upside to that, other than maybe it will wake people up to the fact that people need jobs. You can’t feed anybody, or anything, shuffling money. Even the rich need to eat.

The feds and local law enforcement raided the heck out of the marijuana fields. That raised the price of weed and the people that didn’t get busted are noticeably happy. And, our DA was soft on the ones that did get busted. I guess that might have been a twice told tale in the news.

How’s your life going? Do you have a great job? I do, so I’m not complaining there, but I see a lot of people that don’t, and that concerns me. All in all, 2012 looks like it will be a banner year, one that will be remembered, and go down in the annals of history. Wanta’ bet?

Happy New Year!



New Years bells



Wedding Bells

 I was just over at Kate and Spences place, and I was reading that Spence doesn't have a gig for New Years eve this year, for the first time in his memory, so he and Kate are on their own for something to do. They seem to think that a nice quiet dinner, and maybe and old movie, and off to bed would be great.

My wife and I, back in 1971, merged wedding bells with ringing in the New Year. It seemed like a great idea back then, we reasoned that we would always have a party to go to on our anniversary. It was fun for a few years, but neither of us can stay up until midnight, we are morning people. That and, neither of us like to drink all that much. One drink and I am so over it, two drinks and I am so out of it, if you get my drift. My wife drinks a little more than I do, but she still fits in the light drinker category. I have an excuse, because I'm the designated driver. One drink before dinner, then no driving for at least an hour. I'm fine with that. NO hangover.

I tried to run with the party crowd, but I soon found out that I'm an amateur at partying. I got up early and worked all day, so an all night party just didn't appeal to me. I was always one of the sober ones, so I was always the one that had to try to stop the fights and keep people out of trouble. When everybody is drunk, there is just TOO much going on. I soon found out that it was wise to start leaving about 10:00 PM because the fights and B.S. always start between 10:00 and 11:00. If I am home in bed by 11:00 I don't have to witness my friends getting the crap beat out of them. I always warned them to "stay out of trouble" before I left. So, their problems were no longer mine and I would sleep like a baby.

My wife and I now find some restaurant that has fine food, but is not much of a party place. Most of them try to fake a great New Years Bash, but fall short, much to my delight. We usually get an early seating, most places will have reduced menu options because they are trying to move as many people through the dining room as they can. The early seating works good for us because we can always find something to do after dinner. That would include seeing who the band is. If it somebody good, like the Delta Nationals, we might dance a couple of times and maybe go for a walk.

We aren't very public people. By that I mean, we like people, but we don't share our private life with them. My wife and I are together at work all day, but we don't interact at work that much, she has her job and I have mine. Sometimes we share lunch and get a chance to have some "us time", but usually we don't get to share much. Evenings at home are usually spent doing a few small chores and relaxing. Most of our "us time" is in the car going down the road, or when we go out to dinner, so we very much enjoy an evening out. I really like good food, but I'm really not fussy how it is prepared, if the chef is happy with the meal that he sends out, I'm happy eating it. I will eat a steak, and enjoy, it anywhere from seared very rare to well done. So, a chef has an easy job making me happy. My wife is a little different, she likes to pre-savor her food, she asks about a thousand questions about what a meal has in it and how it is prepared. She is never surprised when it comes out of the kitchen, but she always seems to be happy with herself that she got EXACTLY what she wanted. She leaves herself no room to complain, even if she wanted to.

Anyway, we have chosen a sneaky get-away to a fine restaurant and a night at a bed and breakfast. We will be getting up in time to make it to the Fortuna breakfast in the park, to help Rotary cure polio.

Ernie’s Place apologizes!

I want to offer my most sincere apologies to those people that have commented here and not been able to post. I just checked my “Spam Box” and found it full. The only thing that I delete is blatant advertising vicious personal attacks. Otherwise I allow ALL comments.

A couple of months ago I foolishly downloaded a program that was said was needed to view a file that was sent to me on biding a walk-in cooler/freezer. I became suspicious when it started adding toolbars and other stuff that I didn’t want, but alas, I was too late. My computer has been doing strange stuff and being very slow ever since. I’ve run my AVG virus program and Spybot, which seemed to clear up most of my problems, but I hadn’t occurred to me that this blog got changed.

So….. You might want to check back through the last few blog posts for new comments, and notify my by email if you have concerns. My email is in the upper left corner of the blog front page, under "Personel Bio". It’s not a link, so you will have to cut and paste it, or type it out. I can’t make it into a link because those damn spammers will use it. Oh, what a tangled web we weave….

Lunar Venus Conjunction

When the Moon passes between Earth and Venus it is called an occultation.

I call them eclipses. The other night, there was a near miss during the conjunction of the Earth and Venus, but not an eclipse. It was something to look at just the same. I spend a lot of time watching the sky. It fills me with wonder, it is one of the few things that is still precious to me. Mankind has not found a way to cheapen it... Yet. We were behind a layer of clouds, but it was observable behind the mist. My good friend, Pernel S. Thysteldew lives in Southern Mexico and he was kind enough to send me this photo.

The next time the the moon will block the view of Venus is August 13th, 2012. So get your cameras ready. It is in August, so we have a half a chance at seeing it.

To see a photo display of the Moon eclipsing Venus click on this Link: Moon eclipses Venus

More about Taxco Mexico for the insanely curious: Taxco Mexico

Christmas (Shell)fish Story.

Well, I went to the Cove today and went out on mussel point, on the seaward side. The waves coming in were large rollers, so I was a little apprehensive, but I found long ago that you can always get mussels at low tide. There was a minus 1.5 five at 5:00 P.M or something like that.

I started out on the rocks about 3:45 so the tide was still going out. I like to follow the tide out. That way you can always come back to shore. If you go out at low tide you can sometimes find yourself stranded out on the rocks with water coming up around you. I hate when that happens.

The mussels that you can get along the shore are small and picked over. The farther out that you go the larger they get. The big ones are on the last rock in front of the breakers. I worked my way out, picking a few of the larger small mussels, while building my confidence that I wasn’t going to get skunked. I watched my favorite rock for about ten minutes and no waves were breaking over it and it was pretty well drained off so I sneaked out and got my limit of the larger mussels.

My wife was mad at me for taking chances, but I assured her that it always looks worse from the shore, in fact I felt fairly safe or I wouldn’t have done it.

I usually take a rip hammer with me to pry the mussels of the rock but all I could find was a claw hammer. The claws are too curved, and don’t slide under the mussel that you want to pick. Always take a straight clawed rip hammer, or make your own tool like I used to do. You don’t feel so bad when you lose a cheap homemade mussel pick. I never lost one, so I don’t really know. I’ve lost a few Abalone irons back in my diving days. We use to make our own abalone irons out of old buggy springs, there was an abundance of springs on my Grandmothers ranch in Laytonville.

Anyway, I found the slight element of risk to not be unlike when my cousin and Oregon and I used to go diving for abalone. Time was usually the biggest factor in us going diving. Finding time was always a problem, so when we decided that we had the time we went, no matter what the weather. Oregon didn’t care about the tide but I did, I liked to dive at low tide, there is usually two of those a day so it worked out.

We would usually get up very early for the morning tide, then talk about how we “didn’t care how damn rough the ocean is, we are going to get our abalones.” We went diving in some pretty rough weather and sometimes we didn’t get our limits, but I don’t remember ever getting skunked.

One time in particular, Oregon, Bob, and I went diving off Dehaven Creek in Mendocino. We did the typical banter about getting our abalone, no matter what. When we got there, it was blowing a gale, but we decided that it wasn’t that rough. So we decided to go out. This was one of those times that it looked even worse after we got out there. The wind was so strong that we were being pushed back to shore from our diving tubes catching the wind. When the waves would break, they were breaking over us. We were taking turns diving one at a time because it was impossible for one guy to hold two tubes, let alone three. Finally one of the tubes got away from us and blew clear onto the beach. That was encouraging, so we let another tube go and started diving two at a time. The waves were breaking over us and we had to hold our breathes until the spray from the comb died down. When we came up from a dive we were allowing extra breath just in case we came up in a raft of foam that we couldn’t get our heads above. We soon found that the rip current was so strong that we couldn’t stay on our rock, but pick a new one down current every dive. It wasn’t long until we were pretty much exhausted, then we found that we had blown clear off the rocks, so we swam in.

When we got to shore we gathered up the two other tubes and put our share of abalone in each one before we brought them ashore, just in case the game warden was watching. In retrospect, that was pretty funny, I doubt that the game warden even suspected that somebody might be diving that day. He was probably home toasting his toes by the fire.

We talked about it later and decided that maybe we shouldn’t have done that, but we all had abalone dinner that night, which is a great consolation prize for not getting our complete limit. Now as a side note: I should tell you that there was a hell of a lot of abalones back in the 60s, if you could find a rock, you could find an abalone, so we were fairly sure that we could find a rock out there if we would just go out. Fun times!!!

Merry Christmas

You can tell me about your most memorable Christmas, or go make a new memory. At any rate, have a Very Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice

I want to make it clear, right up front, that I celebrate Christmas, and I am not doing this post to take away from anybody’s beliefs or religion. I also celebrate Hanukah, and Kwanza. In fact I celebrate any holiday that promotes peace and good will. The only other requirement that I have is that it has to include parties and cookies.

Christmas is celebrated mostly by Christians, and they call it the celebration of the birth of their savior, Jesus Christ.

 Hanukah is: “a Jewish festival marking the rededication to Judaism of the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 bc and celebrated by the kindling of eight lights. from 25th day of Kislev, in December, for eight days. 

 Kwanzaa is: “ a week long celebration held in the United States honoring universal African American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as lighting a candle holder with seven candles and culminates in a feast and gift giving. It was created by Maulana Karenga and first celebrated in 1966–1967.”

I have to admit that my favorite holiday is The Winter Solstice celebration. The winter solstice has been around since the Earth first formed into a ball of space dust and started to orbit the Sun. The tilt of the Earths axis points slightly away from the axis of it’s orbit around the sun, so one half the year the center of the axis points slightly toward the Sun, and the other half the year the axis points slightly away from Sun. Winter and Summer.

The thing that I really like about the Solstice is that it has nothing to do with superstition. It can be measured. It is tangible. It has nothing to do with Mumbo-Jumbo. Although, there has been a lot of Mumbo-Jumbo created around it. The solstice is very real and scientific. You could hit it with a hammer. I would imagine that the winter solstice was the first real celebration involving a sentient group of human beings.

In very early human history, while Oog and Moog were sitting in their South facing cave, freezing their rears off, wishing that they could find some fresh fruit, they thought about the years in the past, where they suffered through a cold spell, when the Sun got very low in the sky, and it got very cold. They remembered when the sun started getting higher in the sky, it started getting warmer. They probably had rocks and sticks across the front of their caves to keep the critters out, and the warmth of their fires in. They left a few smoke holes to let the smoke out. They discovered that the Sunlight shining through the holes in their doorway took a different path across the back of their cave everyday. In what seemed like the shortest day of the year the sun started getting higher in the sky every day. The Sunlight path across the backs of their caves told them when the solstice happened. As man became smarter, they figured out how to know when the weather would be warmer, and they knew that they had to have enough food and firewood to get them through the cold season.

The first solstice celebrations must have been amazing. It was one of mans very first scientific endeavors, plotting the winter solstice on the backs of their warm toasty caves. I know how I feel when I know that some nice weather is coming, they must have been elated. They probably had some sort of a major feast. They knew that summer was on it’s way and there would once again be great abundance. So, why not eat a little extra from their winter hoard of supplies?

Soon, the elders became the wise men, they knew about the seasons and the weather, they became the tribe sages, they knew how to predict the warm weather. Oog and Mooog must of highly revered the old people in their tribe. Their knowledge must have been invaluable. Just knowing when it would be summer must have seemed to be a miracle back then. Now we take it for granted.

You already know about the Earth is tilted on it’s axis, that’s why we have summer and winter. But, do you know how long a day is? If you guessed 24 hours, you would be exactly right. That is the period that it takes for the Sun the be straight over head, until the next day when the Sun is straight over head. So, how long does it take for the Earth to revolve one revolution on it’s axis (trick question, Give up?) It is 23 hours and 56 minutes. So, how is that possible? Hint: Multiply the 4 missing minutes times 365, then divide it by 60. You should get very close to 24, the missing four minutes is lost because the earth makes one revolution around the sun every year, that moves the sun 4 minutes off every day, while the earth goes around the sun.

Now to further complicate things, the orbit of the Earth is elliptical. The Earth is closest to the sun in January. By being closer to the Sun, the Earth speeds up in it's trip around the Sun. That means that our winter seasons are faster than our summer season. We also have the added benefit of being closer to the Sun, so our winters are warmer. So if you lived in Australia, you would have shorter hotter Summers and longer colder winters. Have you ever wondererd why the ice is thicker at the south pole? Ain't science wonderful? Aren’t you glad you live in the Northern Hemisphere?

Now Oog and Moog probably didn’t know about all the rest of the stuff, but you can bet your frosty patooty that they knew about the Winter Solstice. Now you know why the Winter Solstice is the holiday of the Scientist. Happy Winter Solstice!!!!    And... Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza. and yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Redway, Santa making a list and checking it twice.

Santa was in Redway today. It seems that all of Redway's children were on there best behavior. Santa said that he didn't even find one bad kid!

The Redway Fire Department took Santa up and down every street in Redway today, so he could make his list of good and bad kids, and ask what they wanted for Christmas. He said that he has his list for Redway all together now and he headed back to the North Pole to start filling the orders. He said that he will be back the night before Christmas.

The Fire department will gather at the Redway Fire house tonight to have their annual Christmas celebration.

Left to right, Roger Ralsten, Patrick Dowd, Ernie Branscomb, Vandelinder junior, SANTA, and Josh Spier. The answer to the question in everybodies mind is Jordan Vandelinder.

Not shown on Santa's crew is Pete Genolio, who had to leave early to go on a Technical Rescue in Honeydew.

Universe expanding... faster and faster... what's up with that???

The universe is expanding... faster and faster... what's up with that???
No.... That can't be!
But...But... What about gravity?

Three scientists just won the Nobel Peace Prize in physics, for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerated pace. Now, I've been happy understanding that one theory of the universe is the "Big Bang", where the universe just popped into existence in one great big, and I mean really, really, big explosion, where matter and anti-matter split apart and went into different universes, or something like that. It kinda' made sense to me that something like that could have happened.  It would make sense that the universe would be drifting apart, after all everything has a tendency to drift away from an explosion. It also make sense to me that large bodies, with mass, have gravitational forces that cause them to attract each other, like the Earth's gravity holds the Moon in orbit, and the Sun holds the Earth in orbit. So, it would seem that at some point gravitation forces would slow and reverse the expanding of the universe. Then it would collapse back in upon itself in a "Big Crunch". So I keep looking to see the tangibles in this theory.

By saying that the universe is expanding, at an accelerated rate, they are saying that there is some energy force pushing the universe apart, because acceleration requires outside energy. Any action requires an equal and opposite reaction. My big question would be, "what is the source of energy that is pushing the universe apart?"

These three guys also won, no strings attached, 1.46 million dollars for their "Discovery". I assume that they can prove the theory and the results are reproducible.

Click on the following links for the story:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1004/Discovery-that-universe-is-expanding-faster-and-faster-earns-physics-Nobel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang



E

Marijuana 25% of Humboldt economy?

According to Jennifer Budwig, a local NoHum person that recently did a banking study on the marijuana industry in Humboldt county, the Humboldt industry generates $415 million for the county’s economy. She goes on to say that her calculations are “subjective due to lack of hard data,” and the estimate to the value to the local economy goes much higher. She estimates the total local economy to be $1.6 billion. By her conservative estimates marijuana is at least 26% of the total economy.

Her job in banking, and her recent study, qualifies her very well to have an opinion. I have often been asked what my estimate to what marijuana contributes to Garberville’s local area economy. I have been quoted as saying “about 80%”. When asked how I could justify such an opinion, I have said take a walk with me and point out the people that you don’t think have anything to do with marijuana. As we walked down town it was pretty apparent that most appeared that they may have something to do with marijuana.

The impact of Marijuana on Humboldt businesses is hard to estimate. Chances are real good that Humboldt businesses could survive a 26% hit on business, if the marijuana factor disappeared. I’m really not sure that a single business in Garberville could survive the loss of the local marijuana industry. So, what does that mean in real numbers? If all the businesses in Garberville closed their doors, does that only relate to 26% of the economy? Or does it filter down to an 80% impact? Will only the government employees count? Most of Garberville’s school employees live in Fortuna, or points north. Most of the State employees live in Fortuna. Park, CHP, and to a lesser extent Caltrans employees live in the north. So, Garberville’s economy is almost only fed by marijuana dollars. Home grown, bred in the hills growers.

Also, most of the calls for emergency services, fires, medical, law enforcement, etc. in Garberville are in some way related to the drug industry, (Not just marijuana).

I would invite anyone to give a good case that Marijuana isn’t at least 80% of the local economy. I wonder if Jennifer Budwig looked into any estimates on Garberville?

Link:
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_19468078?source=most_viewed


E

Protest! Lest we forget...

As we get older we have a tendency to reflect on our lives, and what they were about and what we have done with them. Some of us just get set in our ways and stop thinking, we’ve seen it all, done it all, nobody cares, so why give advice? Every now and then, just as I am thinking that I’m the only one that can really see what is happening to our once great country, I see a glimmer of hope. I reflect; can other people really see what is wrong?

As I watch these recent protests and grass-roots movements springing up all over America, it gives me that glimmer of hope. In most cases the protesters don’t really seem to have a clue. It is apparent that most are there for the party, or just want to be part of something that somebody else told them was important. I see the Tea Party objecting to the obvious racist plants that have been placed in their crowds to discredit them, that, and some of their party actually is racist, but... so are some parts of America. The small amount of racism does not discredit the whole party, any more than the rest of America. It is no reason to condemn their whole movement. The fact that they know something is wrong and they want to fix it is good enough for me.

The new “Occupy Movement” is probably even more important than the Tea Party in that it really is grass roots, it really is America in it’s most basic form. Dirt under the fingernails and all. These are the people that we used to tell “Get a Job!” But, that was back when there were jobs… Those were the good old days. As people are ground-down and they give up, they get into all kinds of weirdness. They get drunk, or use drugs. They no longer become employable, and their "loser" lives become a self-fulfilling prophesy. They don’t have jobs, and nobody would hire them if there were jobs. So, what good does it do to scold them about not having a job?

Back in the days before Reagan was the Governor, tuition was just about free for residents of California. Now, if you are a “C” student, and couldn’t get a better grade if your life depended on it, you are not going to get an education unless your parents are very wealthy. Your only choice is to take out student loans. Remember, you are a “C” student. You are not going to get any smarter in college. You will still only get a “C” in college. Chances are when you get out of college you will not get a good job. Only the elite students, that were born with great intelligence, and got scholarships, and good grades in college, will get the good jobs. The "C" students will be stuck with student loans, with no way to pay them back. Their lives will probably be ruined because they were young and stupid, and they took the advice to "get an education".

To see what is going on in America right now is what I have hoped for, preached for, and wondered why more people were not paying attention. It is time for a change of direction in America. Donald trump says, (paraphrase) that free world trade only works when your politicians aren't stupid. We aren't smart enough to compete in a free trade market. There is not one single country in the world that we don't have a trade deficit with. That means that we don't make a profit on any country anywhere. Our politicians are so stupid that they can't even balance a budget. Now, Don might not be the most pleasant person in the world, but it is hard to argue with his reasoning.

What I'm saying is that there has never been a better time to protest the condition of our country. We are at the bottom in every way. We don't have jobs. We can't balance a budget. We can't provide education. We can't provide health care, because the system is broke. It's no wonder people are mad as hell, even when they don't know exactly what is wrong, but they know something is wrong, and they are protesting. No protest in all of history has been popular. If the protesters ideas were popular, there wouldn't be a protest, would there be?

Now that it is understood that no protest is going to be popular, how are we going to deal with the protesters? The rule for protests are very clearly spelled out in the very first amendment of the United States Constitution. It very clearly states that we have "the right to peacefully assemble"


The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

We have the right to assemble, and we have the right to question our government! Nobody has the right to pepper spray peaceful, albeit obnoxious, protesters... GOT IT?

Back in the '60s and '70s protesters were shot while some Americans cheered. The Viet Nam war protest was nasty and unorganized. Some of the protesters openly advocated for treason, they spit on returning soldiers, called them "Baby Killers. They openly advocated for the enemy. The mood was so contentious against the war that people like Jane Fonda somehow thought that it was okay to sit on a Viet Cong war tank and have her photo taken. Some people, like the parents of soldiers, and mostly World War Two veterans hated the protesters. The mood against the war protesters was that "they should be shot"... that was truly the case. You had to have lived in the time to truly understand the tension between the protesters, who were mostly wrong, and the people who hated them and were also mostly wrong. When the young students at Kent State were shot, some Americans cheered. CHEERED! How is it that we could slip so far? The most Iconic photo of the Kent State shooting was a picture of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling beside a student killed at the Kent State war protest. The photographer, John Filo, won a Pulitzer Prize for taking the photo. To give you some feeling for the times, His uncle told him that if he was at the war protest he should have been shot!

It is my fervent hope that we would all stop our hateful feeling against these Grass-roots protesters. Nothing good can come of it. It is also my fervent hope that the demonstrations should be dealt with respectfully, but firmly. When the protesters are out of line they need to be told so. They can't be allowed to create unsanitary conditions, or do things that might be harmful to other people. Many of these demonstrators have people that they look to for guidance. The police should negotiate with these leaders firmly but respectfully, they should offer alternatives and reasons why they are being told to leave. Peaceful protesters sitting on a curb don't need to be pepper sprayed. These protests are NOT GOING TO GO AWAY. Trust me... I been there, smelled the smells, seen the hate, tasted the violence. We don't need to control things that don't need controling no matter what they teach you in Cop School. Everybody is ultimately responsible for their own actions no matter what the "orders" are. Allowing the protests are one of the better thing that can happen. A few of them, probably less than 20% really do know what's wrong with America. I believe that they should have their chance to have their say. They could not do any worse than the people that are in charge now.

I'm including the video below as to how far we can sink when we start to hate and disrespect each other. Some of the people killed at Kent State Ohio over a Viet Nam war protest on May 4 1970 have relatives that live here. My most sincere respect and condolences go out to them. I wasn't there but, as I read and listened to the video, the times of that protest came flooding back to me, the smells of gunpowder, the hate, the need to "control the situation at all costs", the disrespect for one another.

If you listen to the video, it is very poignent. To those of us that have killed an animal, (I have), or those of us who have killed a human being in war, (I haven't) the sound of the gunshot is unmistakable. You know that the world has stopped for an innocent life. We need to never let our dislike of these protests go as far as it did at Kent State.

Aliaa Elmahdy, Titilating protest.

To quote "Cable Guy", Lord forgive me for which I'm about to do. I'm not sure how much slack the Lord will cut for an agnostic, but here goes...

I was reading on CNN about Aliaa Elmahdy, who posed in full frontal nudity to make a point. And, By golly, the point was.... She had a point... oh yeah, I think she hates Burkas. Well, so do I! So, right off we have something in common.

I have only shown decently cropped photos here, because no matter how immodest young Aliaa is, I am too embarrassed to place her nude photos on my blog. I am a bit ashamed of myself for not posting them, after all it was her idea to pose nude to call attention to her cause... whatever it was... Oh yeah Burkas. Now being a young man of the sixties, I've seen these kinds of things before. Helen Gurley Brown wrote a book called "Sex and the Single Woman". After her book came out, the women of America realized that men were holding them back, and holding them to standards of modesty and morality that were NOT of their choosing. They needed to make that point clear. The method that they used was to burn their bras in mass. It was fun to watch all the women taking their bras off and burning them. Much to the guys disappointment, women seem to be quite adept at taking their bras off under a sweatshirt, without even the slightest peek at any flesh. Drat. No fun at all, but our imaginations would still run wild. The thought of all these liberated women running amock was still very exciting. I kept watching my girlfriend at the time, wondering if she was going to take part in this great and fun new movement. Somehow men's minds must be highly transparent. She just gave me "that look", if you are a man, you know "the look". She said "You can just forget it". I can't begin to tell you the frustration of being a young man of the 60's and not being able to participate. So, I've always just been a cheerleder for all of these wonderfull causes.
 
From CNN
Egyptian blogger Aliaa Elmahdy: Why I posed naked
Share this on:Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn November 19, 2011|By Mohamed Fadel Fahmy for CNN

A crop of the nude photo of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy posted on Twitter and on her blog.Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has become a household name in the Middle East and sparked a global uproar after a friend posted a photo of her naked on Twitter.

The photo, which the 20-year-old former student first posted on her blog, shows her naked apart from a pair of thigh-high stockings and some red patent leather shoes.

It was later posted on Twitter with the hashtag #nudephotorevolutionary. The tweet was viewed over a million times, while Elmahdy's followers jumped from a few hundred to more than 14,000.

Her actions have received global media coverage and provoked outrage in Egypt, a conservative Muslim country where most women wear the veil. Many liberals fear that Elmahdy's actions will hurt their prospects in the parliamentary election next week.

Elmahdy describes herself as an atheist. She has been living for the past five months with her boyfriend, blogger Kareem Amer, who, in 2006 was sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison for criticizing Islam and defaming former president Hosni Mubarak.

Here she talks exclusively to CNN in Cairo about why she posed nude.

CNN: Why did you post a photo of yourself nude photo on Twitter, and why the red high heels and black stockings?

Elmahdy: After my photo was removed from Facebook, a male friend of mine asked me if he may post it on Twitter. I accepted because I am not shy of being a woman in a society where women are nothing but sex objects harassed on a daily basis by men who know nothing about sex or the importance of a woman.

The photo is an expression of my being and I see the human body as the best artistic representation of that. I took the photo myself using a timer on my personal camera. The powerful colors black and red inspire me.

CNN: Who is Aliaa Elmahdy inside the body portrayed in the nude photo?

Elmahdy: I like being different. I love life, art, photography and expressing my thoughts through writing more than anything. That is why I studied media and hope to take it further to the TV world too so I can expose the truth behind the lies we endure everyday in this world. I don't believe that we must have children only through marriage. It's all about love.







In closing, I have to say that Elmahdy seems to be a very intelligent young lady, and has a sure method of getting attention. She will go far. I wouldn't be suprised if she has women out of their burkas in no time at all!


e