07:23 – The big news story is that Britney Spears apparently has leprosy. In other news, it looks like we’re in for four more years of complete gridlock, which is a good thing, considering the alternative.
09:34 – Hmmm. Barbara’s only comment this morning on the election results was that she wants to move to Canada.
09:59 – We’re down to just one biology kit in stock, so I’ll build another 15 today. That’s verbal shorthand, of course. I won’t actually be building those kits myself. Obama will be building them for me. Bastard.
16:04 – Barbara called from work a little while ago to say that her dad had fallen and she was on her way to meet them at the emergency room. She thinks he’ll be okay, but falls are dangerous at any age, let alone 90. I’ve said this to Barbara before, and I hate to annoy her by repeating myself, but her dad really, really needs to be using a full walker instead of just a cane. He’s no longer strong enough or fast enough to catch himself with just a cane. I’m sure he’ll resist using a walker, but I don’t see any alternative.
We are certainly going to have legislative gridlock, and I think that may not be a bad thing. However, I predict we are going to have a pile of new regulations with absolutely no thought to the consequences.
I wish it would be deadlock. With the new trend towards an imperial presidency, I’m not so sure. The motto of recent times seems to be that Congressional approval is optional, and not to be worried about. Heck, Congress can’t even pass a budget – yet new programs and regulations continue rolling out Washington in a never-ending flood.
The best thing the House could do is pass every bill the Democrats want. Let the big steaming mess come crashing down on the country sooner rather than later. I’d rather deal with it while I am still relatively young than when I’m 75.
Does anybody know how my 87 year old Mom’s Medicare will change? Does the government really expect people that age to fill out tons of paperwork to change things around? Hey, I just came up with a cottage industry. Wait, I’m sure more government employees will be added to the roles to take care of that.
Lol, poor Britney.
Poor thing. That is either Psoriasis or Pityriasis Lichenoides Chronica, both of which are caused by severe stress. I wish her the best, treatment for either is tough and does not work very well.
Yes, I am amazed at the amount of new regulations pouring out of Washington, DC. Many of them affect my business (new taxes for small business in Obamacare) or my industry (oil and gas). I am convinced that Mr. Obama will not be happy until 80% of the country is on welfare, social security or unemployment.
Agreed with MrAtoz and Robert on this charade. I, too, would rather deal with the coming disasters while still relatively young (59) than when I’m old and doddering—oh wait–already there!
http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/11/07/obama-won-now-what-will-you-do/
Exactly. Continue as before with preps already underway and maybe ramp them up a bit. And be aware that the majority of my fellow Americans would choose Mao over Franco.
We knew this, but here’s the confirmation. Although the government does it’s best to hide the real data, real wages have been declining for quite some time now. Since 2004, the decline has been particularly steep. Unfortunately, the data stops in 2009, so we can’t really see how it has continued under the present administration.
I meant “leprosy” in the biblical sense. She’ll need to be examined and then stoned to death.
Chuck thinks we will head to Euro style socialism. I hope he is right. Anybody notice more and more military tech, drones, weapons, etc. placed in the hands of your local jack booted police thugs. We’ll be surveilled and arrested with police impunity. States want to legalize Mary Jane, but that hasn’t stopped the Feds from busting down doors and burning fields. Has Guantanamo closed? Have we left Afganistan? Did the TSA go away overnight because we are now 100% safe thanks to the government. Remember the Patriot Act? Obama had two years to get rid of that. Did he? Get ready for tyranny before Euro socialism.
Off soapbox.
Wages sho nuff been declining a real long time now; my dad was the sole breadwinner and managed to raise five kids with wife and have a house and car and we had three hots and a cot and some fun times, too. They taught me to read at age four and while not heavy on the spare the rod and spoil the child thang, they were not slackers at it, either. Try raising five hellacious brats now with house and cah on what he made, even allowing for current fiat currency: $13,000 a year, as a boiler and machinery engineer and insurance inspector.
Mrs . OFD and I make ten times that (in current fiat currency) and basically live pay check to pay check, with not much in savings, and just managing to raise the two kids and get them through (pause here for loud guffaws) publik skool and college.
And the guy that just got elected by a majority of my fellow American citizens (?) wants to make it a lot harder for us and take our fiat currency and just hand it off to both corporate bigwigs on the one hand every time they fuck up the national and world economies, and the gimme class in this country, who fervently and rabidly believe that the State is there for THEM, first, last and always, and will forever take care of them and their neediness.
Down the road it is gonna be General Franco or Chairman Mao, and as a right-wing (paleoconservative w/libertarian streak) Roman Catholic ex-soldier and ex-cop one can guess who I would pick fairly easily. But…to paraphrase the late Jim Morrison…’we got the guns and they got the numbers…’
BTW, Franco got a bad rap, plus you can tell what side somebody is likely to be on when you ask them which side they’d have picked in the Spanish Civil War; the vast majority of wiseacre smartypants egghead lefty writers and suchlike went for the republicans. And lost.
My only question is he stupid enough to not realize this is what he’s doing, or is this his grand design? Never mind, it’s a pointless academic question. His goal doesn’t matter, it’s derailing his plan that matters…
Grand design. The Long March continues.
And will take 50% off the top as the government’s share. And will require at least twice as long to assemble each kit, with serious mistakes in 80% of them, to judge by my experience with other government employees.
Obama is a Marxist. He intends to continue impoverishing the middle class to favor the poor and his client groups, such as unions. The Party elite will continue to grow richer, of course.
Word. Just for balance: if Mittens had gotten in he would have sought to also impoverish the middle class in this country, where it is open season on us, to favor his masters and overlords and client groups among the wealthy classes. The Party elites in that half of the Party would be getting richer instead, although there is substantial overlap, known in the MSM as “bipartisanship.” He would have also kow-towed even more abjectly to Likud and likely have gotten us into another war or two in the Sandbox, while simultaneously kow-towing to the muslim oil princes.
We intend to nurture our little platoon up here and kind of hunker down in prep mode while also doing what we can to derail the Long March, which has already successfully captured the MSM, academia, much of the State apparatus, and what’s left of Western Christian culture itself.
More and more businesses are becoming “small”. Like Lynn says, if you are under 50, you can get by health insurance, for now. Soon there will be no exemptions. Even part time employees will be guaranteed insurance. The insurance will cost a business more than salaries. Don’t “baby sitters” in Kalifornia get vacation and benefits now. What a joke.
Dick Morris on why he was wrong about the election results:
http://www.dickmorris.com/why-i-was-wrong/
This is not the USA that I grew up in. The melting pot has been malfunctioning for quite a while now. And, fathers are not taking taking care of their families which why single women think of the government as their sugar daddy. I do not know how to fix either of these problems in the short term. Maybe not even the long term.
Oh gosh, I hope for a Charles de Gaulle. France is still coasting on his accomplishments. Their infrastructure is second to none in Europe still and de Gaulle has been gone for 40 years. His broad support for nuclear power has made France the premier supplier of electricity in Europe with hundreds of thousands of jobs to boot.
About Canada; from sad experience the Provinces decide who can own agricultural land. In Manitoba my wife could NOT inherit the quarter section of bush from her Yank parents.
I don’t have any data about restraint on buying real estate in cities there. Other knowledgeable sources ?
Not yet. They tried but backed off when it was obvious the rich-elite might have to pay their nannies real wages.
The news here is bad. Prop 30 passed raising taxes ‘for schools’. Prop 32 that would have limited unions taking money out of wages for political purposes failed. The state senate now has a super-majority meaning they can push taxes even higher. It’s clear the unions and the welfare class have taken over. The money flees and they think they can just keep taking.
“Don’t “baby sitters” in Kalifornia get vacation and benefits now.”
Damn. If that is true, I need to move out there and get ramped up on that ASAP.
We have no de Gaulle or Franco on the horizon yet; but we sure do got Mao. And if Morris or anyone else thinks for a nanosecond that the Stupid Party half of the Party is gonna derail the Long March then I wanna know just WTF they’re smoking. Anyone who supports these cretins after this latest fiasco is terminally a fucktard. Simple as that.
Oh yeah, here it comes:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/obama-may-levy-carbon-tax-to-cut-the-u-s-deficit-hsbc-says.html
Nothing like a new dollar per gallon gasoline tax to make the masses happy. And if a dollar per gallon does not work, why not two dollars? Five?
Joseph, AFAIK there are no restrictions on buying property in any city I know of. You can even buy agricultural land, provided it is under a certain size.
What there is, is a prohibition on foreign ownership of agricultural land over a certain size. In other words, a 10 or 25 acre hobby farm is allowed, a quarter section or larger of food producing land is not. We would like to retain ownership of our food crops, thank you very much.
You want to buy a full section of non-agricultural land, the sky is the limit.
And now a message of love from key Obama supporter Beyonce. Who wants to bring the country together:
http://www.gossipcop.com/beyonce-take-that-mitches-mitt-romney-message-pic-photo-barack-obama-win/
Hmm. I wonder if the Tea Party is going to have to start being more like the men who inspired the name. Or, in the immortal words of Tuco in the bathtub scene, “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.”
Does Canada restrict sale of agricultural land to citizens, or merely prohibit ownership by foreign corporations? I’d think Canada would have no problem with an individual or family from the US buying a full section or more if they intended to actually occupy it and farm it themselves. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I saw something on the Canada immigration site saying that it encouraged immigrants to buy farms and ranches if they intended to work them themselves.
Yo, fools, we just gon’ git Beyonce an’ Jay-Z to fork over they money an’ pay our dam gas tax! yaknowwutIsayin?
As for the contemporary Tea Party, I would prefer not to be associated with these one-issue dollar-focused cretins in the funny triangular hats. The next Tea Party-type enterprise of that sort will be much more radical and violent. It won’t be crates of tea going over the side, I can promise that.
So since I am not going to buy a one story home, can I retrofit an elevator into my home?
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4007/picture/10722/
I have a two story foyer and a two landing staircase much like this one in the picture. The first story has 10 ft or 11 ft ceilings (yes, too high!). I would bolt the elevator to the 2nd story landing and remove a section of the railing.
I have to do something soon as my daughter can only go and down the stairs about once per day due to her arthritis. And the wife was taking her some food Sunday afternoon and managed to fall down the last 3 steps. She landed on her knees and did not break anything, thank goodness.
Agricultural land ownership over a certain size (and that depends on the province, some as low as 10 acres, some as high as 50) is restricted to citizens only, but we allow for immigrants who are coming in with the intent to become citizens, as they end up as citizens. The point is, we want the people who own the farm to work and live on the farm. I don’t even want large Canadian corporations from owning that land, let alone foreign ones.
So you’re right, we would be quite happy for an American family to come up here and take over one of the farms, as long as they become citizens in the process. I wonder if we get a jump in applications after every election?
And in other “related” news, both Washington State and Colorado have voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana.
I know someone who retrofitted an elevator in their home, so you should only be limited by your budget. They put in a hydraulic system, and ended up having to build a pit in their basement for the mechanism itself.
Wouldn’t vacuum powered elevators suck? Pa-dum-TISH!
Lynn, you mentioned the bends and angles in your stairway. If one stretch has most of the steps and the other segments are just a few steps that your daughter can handle, search for “stairway chair lift”. Cheaper and less obtrusive than an elevator.
I don’t have personal experience with retrofitting elevators in homes, but what you’re describing sounds reasonable. At any rate, that’s the way I’d do it; dunno if anyone would consider me reasonable.
Yeah, I remember back in the 60’s seeing an episode of The Farmer’s Daughter. They had a lift installed on the stairway, and it struck me as a very good idea at the time. The seat flipped up and down, so when it wasn’t in use it wasn’t blocking the stairway.
Or, Lynn, you could go with my original idea: a catapult or trebuchet to boing your daughter upstairs and either a trampoline or a batpole for coming downstairs. No, no, there’s no need to thank me. My genius is a gift for all humanity.
Alternatively, can you rig a dumbwaiter by the stairs? Your wife and daughter could send full and empty plates up and down without having to navigate the stairs. At the least, your wife could send the tray on the dumbwaiter and then give more attention and more hands to going up and down the stairs.
“…dunno if anyone would consider me reasonable.”
Oh sure, I would.
Wow, Rush nailed it today. “In a nation of children, Santa Claus wins”:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/11/07/in_a_nation_of_children_santa_claus_wins
From the bottom of the stairs: 3 steps, landing, turn 90 degrees, 10 steps, landing, turn 45 degrees, 7 steps, top landing.
I love the section in the movie “Up” where the old man rides the chair lift up XXX down the stairs and has to beat the chair motor when it locks up halfway. Best Pixar movie hands down except for the rest of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkqzFUhGPJg
The batpole would be cool the first time until I fell down it.
Hey, I did find a curved stairway lift.
http://www.tkaccess.com/stair-lifts/flowII/stairlifts_flowII.aspx
The trouble would be getting the wife to use it. She has neuropathy in her feet from six months of chemotherapy seven years ago (breast cancer survivor). This is not the first time she has fallen on the stairs either. But she likes the exercise going up and down the stairs and disregards the personal danger.
Yeah, Rush is great for entry-level conservatives who don’t read much. He did a yeoman job for a long time in that regard and got many more people to change their previously brainwashed minds. He deserves a medal.
Santa Claus is gonna turn out to be more like Satan’s Claws.
I suspect that you would only have to be a “landed immigrant” to own the land.
The grandparents of a friend owned at cottage at Pointe au Baril on Georgian Bay. They were American. In fact, Pointe au Baril was known (and still might be) as Ohio’s playground. In the ’60s and ’70s most of the cottages were owned by Americans. Originally the land itself was Crown Land and had 99 year leases. In the late ’70s or early ’80s the leases were converted to freeholds.
The Romneys own a “cottage” in Grand Bend, Ontario on Lake Huron. They’ve had it for about 50 years.
Some years ago, PEI tried to prevent non-residents from buying beach front properties. I don’t know if this was ever implemented or if it was whether it was over turned.
If you’re big enough, and rich enough and not Chinese I suspect that Harper & cronies will be glad to accommodate you anyway.
On a different note: The biggest screwing ever imposed on the middle class in Canada was done by Brian Mulroney (may his head be shat upon by a million camels) and his conservatives with their “tax reform”. Tax rates for the rich were slashed, millions of low income Canadians were taken off the tax roles and the all the missing revenue taken from the middle class. Conservatives / Liberals, all much the same to me. Then there is our NDP, they will solve his problems with my money. A pox on them all.
“Hmmm. Barbara’s only comment this morning on the election results was that she wants to move to Canada.”
Australia has nicer people, a nicer climate, is more laid back and not as religious. And we don’t have a giant southern neighbor who is continually trying to meddle. And we don’t have tornadoes and you don’t have to learn French.
OFD wrote:
“BTW, Franco got a bad rap, plus you can tell what side somebody is likely to be on when you ask them which side they’d have picked in the Spanish Civil War; the vast majority of wiseacre smartypants egghead lefty writers and suchlike went for the republicans. And lost.”
I would have been on the side of the more moderate, restrained republicans. I have to have some sympathy for the POUM, a Trotskyist aligned group that Stalin hated. George Orwell serve with the POUM, whose biggest enemy was the Stalinists. You want to know who won the war for Franco? Stalin did.
As to Franco, may he rest in hell.
Bill wrote:
“And in other “related” news, both Washington State and Colorado have voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana.”
Yeah, and the Feds don’t like it. Expect more court battles that richify lawyers.
“Obama is a Marxist.”
He’s an atheist too, and strangles 50 puppies with his bare hands before breakfast.
Isn’t it funny President Choom lets his Feds go after MJ?! WTF!
Nonsense, Miles_Teg. Obowwowma isn’t manly enough to strangle a puppy. He does, however, eat dog.
He does! A month ago a cat priestess (same one who appeared to Julius Caesar) told him in a dream that if he strangled 50 puppies a day (BCs count as two) between then and election day he’d win. So that’s what he did and he won!
Wow, a lot less people voted in 2012 versus 2008:
Obama 2012: 60,785,129 Romney 2012: 57,887,331
Obama 2008: 69,456,897 McCain 2008: 59,934,814
Romney got 2 million less votes than McCain did !
Obama got almost 9 million less votes in 2012 than 2008!
Gee, looks like people are opting out. I wonder why…
Hey Bob and OFD, they noticed that you did not vote:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/11/08/the_case_of_the_missing_white_voters_116106.html
What makes you think I’m white?
Yeah, I have the same question; many of the Abenaki peoples up here in northern Vermont appear whiter than me!
And besides Angle, Saxon, Jute, Norse, and Celt, I have some Pict in me, too. Weren’t Picts blue???
I’ve got a picture of a white dude and a white lady on the back cover of _Repairing and Upgrading Your PC_, 2nd edition. Dude’s got a white beard too.
What, you’ve never heard of Photoshop? The creative commons library of photographs? Get with the 19th century, man!
By the way, I think you’re politically incorrect, too. You should have described it as a salt-and-pepper beard.
Is it salt and pepper? Looks “pure” (geez, there’s a politically incorrect word) white to me.
Mine is red and blonde, but with plenty o’ salt now, too. Amazingly, the topside hair has stayed dark auburn for half a century. (knock on wood).