July
1 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
Yesterday afternoon turned out to be a hot one, 87° with calm winds called for some A/C. I am a lot cooler today, with rain starting just after noon, and a lot cooler than most of the United States. I also have electricity for my A/C if it does get hot which much of the east coast does not. It is a shame that Congress has left town for their Independence Day week off. If they were still in Washington D C they could suffer along with the local citizens.I took patches for just a short potty walk in that afternoon heat. We did a little less than ½ mile and she had her tongue hanging out and was panting to stay cool. This morning we were out in the low 60s which was much more comfortable for both of us. Did a little shorter morning walk because the right knee is a bit sore.
The parade of horse trailers with living space using the Park dump continued today. There were also a lot of travel trailers that got in line. I assume they were here to watch the rodeo and/or had another rig for their horses if they were participants. I think the Park get all this holding tank dump traffic because they are the only place in town that offers a dump.
The mustard greens as a replacement for the kale was a winner. I may make a point of getting one bunch of kale and one of mustard greens and using them together in my future salads. I now know that it has certainly been done before but no one told me that mustard greens would make a good salad. Where have I been?
2 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
The rain that we got yesterday around noon was not much of a shower and did little more than raise the humidity and make the 76° high feel uncomfortable. A very pleasant upper 40s this morning when we did our morning walk. Expected high to be back in the lower 80s this afternoon.The weekend comings and goings in the Park have passed once more. It is very quiet here during the week but the weekends have filled most of the spaces and it is a lot busier. The parade of rigs using the Park dump has also gone away. There have been more people come through on Friday and Sunday but nothing like this past weekend when the rodeo was in town.
I'm still reading Monthly Blogs plus my usual routine. The News is going to remain slow this week as I suspect a good portion of the lame stream media have joined the politicians by taking the week off. That gives me a little more couch time to read my latest novel and appreciate some of the fine weather that is in forecast.
As former Speaker Pelosi said 'We have to pass Obamacare before we know what is in it'. I read today that my understanding of what the IRS can do IF I refuse to pay the ObamaCare penalty/tax was wrong. They did not go on to say what the IRS might be able to do to collect on a judgment after suing but a person could tie the process in all kinds of knots if so inclined.
The IRS will not have the power to charge you criminally or seize your assets if you refuse to pay. The IRS will only have the ability to sue you. And the most the IRS can collect from you if it wins the suit is 2X the amount you owe. So if you want to thumb your nose at the penalty-tax, the IRS won't be able to do as much to you as they could if you refused to pay, say, income tax.
3 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
The forecast high yesterday was very short of the mark. We reached 90° the highest that it has been since I have been here. That had Patches and I doing a short afternoon walk and I had the A/C on for a couple of hours and then went to sleep with just the fan running.It was a very nice low 50s this morning and we did a 2 mile walk. The forecast is once again for it to be in the upper 70s so our afternoon walk may be a bit longer than yesterday.
When we got home this morning my chore was to get laundry done. I managed to get in the laundry room again before anyone else tied up the limited number of machines. There was someone else there when I went to get my dried clothes but that was fine because I was through.
I realized that I had lost one of my Monthly Blogs and had to do a multi-month catch up on it. This took some extra time but making good progress. I did purge a few last month but the list somehow keeps expanding. I have almost finished the most recent novel that I picked up here at the Park exchange library. I'll trade it in later today of tomorrow. All just usual stuff.
Edward Klein, author of The Amateur has an essay After fleeting Supreme Court victory, Obama remains the amateur in which he hammers President Obama once again.
In ancient Rome, whenever a general was given a victory parade, he would be accompanied in his chariot by a slave who whispered into his ear, “Heed not the call of the crowds, for all glory is fleeting.”President Obama can point to the record number of people on Food Stamps as an accomplishment of his Administration, he can also point to the increased numbers of people that are now on Social Security disability. That is the good news, the bad news is that the disability insurance (DI) trust fund is nearly broke.
Someone ought to be whispering that advice into Barack Obama’s ear right now, for if ever there was a fleeting victory, it was the Supreme Court’s ruling that ObamaCare is constitutional—a decision that will lead to the largest tax increase in American history and leave Obama and the entire Democratic ticket vulnerable at the ballot box in November.
But don’t count on David Axelrod, the president’s top political strategist, to perform the duty of the prudent Roman slave. These days, Axelrod isn’t whispering; he’s shouting from the rooftops that the Supreme Court ruling is proof that a new, politically skillful Obama has replaced the callow, arrogant incompetent that I describe in my book "The Amateur."...
The notion that Obama has changed his stripes, that he is actually a better and more effective president than any of us suspected, is pure hogwash...
It is the hallmark of a political amateur to ignore the advice of wise men and women who tell him what he doesn’t want to hear and, instead, embrace those who cater to his inexperience, vanity, and worst instincts. This has been the pattern of the Obama presidency. And that was exactly what happened in the case of ObamaCare.
A record of 8,733,461 individuals received federal disability insurance payments in June 2012, according to the Social Security Administration. When President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2, 2009, there were 7,442,377 individuals receiving federal disability payments. This is a good thing because these 1,291,084 people have left the work force and helped reduce the unemployment rate during the past 3 ½ years.
However, the Disability Insurance (DI) program satisfies neither the long-range test nor the short-range test. DI costs have exceeded non-interest income since 2005, and the Trustees project trust fund exhaustion in 2016, two years earlier than projected last year. The DI program faces the most immediate financing shortfall of any of the separate trust funds; thus lawmakers need to act soon to avoid reduced payments to DI beneficiaries four years from now. (This is from A SUMMARY OF THE 2012 ANNUAL REPORTS by Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees)
4 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
Patches and I set a new record walking distance for 2012 yesterday at 4.54 miles. This was done in almost equal parts during the morning and late afternoon when the temperature was only in the lower 70s. The high for the day was 80° which is expected again today following the cold 37 we had this morning.I have been using iGoogle as my computer homepage for about a year and liked the various 'iGoogle gadgets' that were available (free). Well Google has decided that free was not such a good idea and they are discontinuing iGoogle on November 1, 2013 with the Mobile Version going away on July 31, 2012. I discontinued it yesterday and today by moving to My Yahoo!. It is all new to me now as was iGoogle when I first started using it but I should get used to it within a few days/weeks.
I think the host for the blog that I was reading to catch up to current has also shut down. I had not tried to access the page for a few days and when I did so two days ago I got a page that said the site was closed. I tried it again today and saw the same page and the same message. The author moved to Blogger at the beginning of this year and the archives for that blog host are all available but prior to that seem to be gone.
Independence Day here in the Park has been quieter than most week days. I think there was less traffic than usual on US93 this morning when we were doing our walk also. A pretty relaxing day that had me doing the same O same O.
5 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
It was a cool 43° this morning with the high expected to be near 90. We then get a taste of what the rest of the country has been going through. The highs are forecast to be in the 90-95 range through next Tuesday. I expect to be running my A/C.Patches and I have decided that we will do a longer walk during the cool of the morning and forego our long walks in the increased heat of the late afternoon. With that goal in mind we did about 2.75 miles this morning. That was south on US93 to the first traffic light on the north side of Hamilton, at BJ's Restaurant, and return.
There is an economic experiment being performed in France. Their new President is a believer in the same economic principles as is ours and thinks that 'tax the rich' is the road to increased economic growth. The experiment is to see if increasing taxes will increase economic growth. I have my doubts. There is no example, in modern economic history, of a country that has succeeded in reducing its deficits by bringing taxes to a confiscatory level.
However, his proposed levy on the rich at €2.3 billion is not enough; there is also €1.1 billion to come from big business (worker/consumers indirectly) and €1.95 billion directly from worker/consumers. That is what will happen here also IF 'tax the rich' is ever passed, the middle class tax payer will get taped as well.
France's new Socialist government announced tax rises worth 7.2 billion euros on Wednesday, including heavy one-off levies on wealthy households and big corporations, to plug a revenue shortfall this year caused by flagging economic growth.I have not add any casualties that occurred in Africa where President Obama has sent his assassination team to get the leaders of Lord’s Resistance Army. I don't know that there have been any because the lame stream media is silent on what is happening there. I believe there are still troops in Iraq and will report any casualties there although the President says we have withdrawn. The table below shows the deaths for the first half of each year and the President in office when they occurred.
In the first major raft of economic measures since Francois Hollande was elected president in May promising to avoid the painful austerity seen elsewhere in Europe, the government singled out large companies and the rich.
An extraordinary levy of 2.3 billion euros ($2.90 billion) on wealthy households and 1.1 billion euros in one-off taxes on large banks and energy firms were central parts of an amended 2012 budget presented to parliament.
The amended budget eliminated a number of reforms introduced by Sarkozy, such as the tax exemption on overtime for companies with more than 20 employees. Scrapping that measure should raise 980 million euros this year, the Socialists said. Repealing a law which shifted labor charges onto a rise in VAT sales tax will also have a net positive effect of 800 million euros, and a doubling of a tax on financial transactions to 0.2 percent will bring in 170 million euros.
| Total US Casualties Iraq & Afghanistan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bush | Obama | |
| 2001 | -0- | -0- |
| 2002 | 39 | -0- |
| 2003 | 235 | -0- |
| 2004 | 406 | -0- |
| 2005 | 468 | -0- |
| 2006 | 409 | -0- |
| 2007 | 626 | -0- |
| 2008 | 274 | -0- |
| 2009 | -0- | 187 |
| 2010 | -0- | 242 |
| 2011 | -0- | 243 |
| 2012 | -0- | 165 |
6 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 6, 1924It was pleasantly cool this morning but we did a short walk. I feel like I need a rest and the way Patches climbed up Desperado's steps after the afternoon walk yesterday I think she needs one also. We are going into a five day forecast of hot weather starting today with temperatures reaching 97°.
Went into town after our short walk and had breakfast at Perkins Restaurant once more. It is so convenient to then just walk over to Albertsons and get my grocery shopping done for the week.
I was not happy with the produce section in the Safeway here my first week and was similarly unhappy today. They had no kale (did have a decent bunch of mustard greens), the grape tomatoes looked old and bad, there were no cherries and the medium avocados were little golf ball size.
I did pick up a decent loaf of whole wheat and honey last week and they had another one today. I got it and also a loaf of roasted garlic ciabatta that is pretty good: good flavor, thin but crunchy crust and a good interior texture that will hold up to applying butter.
The Bureau of Labor has released their non-farm job numbers for June, an increase of 80,000, which the media has reported as very disappointing. They are spinning the Unemployment Rate remaining at 8.2% as good News which I am sure President Obama will also focus on. These numbers were again below what the 'experts' had been forecasting.
An aside: 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely in June to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.
An aside: the unemployment level has been above 8% for 41 consecutive months. To put that in perspective, in the previous 60 years, the unemployment rate topped 8% in a total of only 39 months.
The monthly report does not look nearly a bleak when you look at the Bureau's historical data, by month, for Total Employed (which includes farm workers and has not been manipulated quite as much). Maybe two months do not make a trend but the last two months have reversed the down trend that had been in place: March LOST 31,000, April LOST 169,000, May ADDED 422,000 and June ADDED 128,000.
The bad news is also not so terrible with Unemployed going up by only 29,000. The Not in the Labor Force increased by only 34,000. These two small increases are what led to that stable Unemployment Rate. For the first four months of the year the Not in the Labor Force numbers were very favorable for President Obama's re-election. However, the past two months have turned against him with more people coming back into the Labor Force. This is not a good thing for him, he is running out of time before the election.
An essay Romney's Tax Confusion in The Wall Street Journal REVIEW & OUTLOOK had the following to say in part:
The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault. We're on its email list and the main daily message from the campaign is that "Obama isn't working." Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that. What they want to hear from the challenger is some understanding of why the President's policies aren't working and how Mr. Romney's policies will do better.I think this is spot on. Romney may be making a case for not voting for President Obama but the President has already done that himself during the past 3 ½ years. What Romney is not doing is making a case for why someone should vote for him. I did not think anyone could run a worse campaign than McCain but I'm starting to change my mind. Obama has to be the luckiest candidate there ever was to be able to run again McCain and now against Romney.
... in particular because they go to the heart of Mr. Romney's main campaign theme—that he can create jobs as President because he is a successful businessman and manager. But candidates who live by biography typically lose by it. The biography that voters care about is their own, and they want to know how a candidate is going to improve their future. That means offering a larger economic narrative and vision than Mr. Romney has so far provided. It means pointing out the differences with specificity on higher taxes, government-run health care, punitive regulation, and the waste of politically-driven government spending.
7 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
We took advantage of the low 50 degree morning and did a longer walk again. With the increased high temperatures I am only doing ½ mile potty walks with Patches in the later afternoon. Even the shorter walk has her tongue hanging out until it drags on the ground as she does her usual sniffing routine.My shopping list yesterday included the ingredients for Pescado a la Veracruzana. I have not had any for a long time and was craving some. In the past I have made the sauce before hand and then each day I would fry the fish and top it with the reheated sauce. This time I baked all the fish pieces with the sauce in my Roaster and will reheat a serving each day along with some garlic red potatoes. That will be served with the mustard greens salad that I am really enjoying.
Most of my day was devoted to staying cool. I know for sure it is time to turn on the A/C when I see Patches start to pant while laying on the couch. That time came early this afternoon.
I told you about the financial experiment in France. There is also an experiment going on in California. This one is to determine if throwing money at roads/bridges/railroads will reduce the unemployment rate and put construction workers back to work. I don't want to belittle Madera, Bakersfield or the Central Valley where this experiment is going to be built BUT in my opinion this is a high-speed bullet train to nowhere.
California lawmakers approved billions of dollars Friday in construction financing for the initial segment of what would be the nation's first dedicated high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The bill authorizes the state to begin selling $4.5 billion in voter-approved bonds that includes $2.6 billion to build an initial 130-mile stretch of the high-speed rail line in the Central Valley (the federal government will kick in another $3.2 billion). This first segment of the line will run from Madera to Bakersfield. The final cost of the completed project from Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $68 billion.
One dissenter, Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said public support had waned for the project, and there were too many questions about financing to complete it. "Is there additional commitment of federal funds? There is not. Is there additional commitment of private funding? There is not. Is there a dedicated funding source that we can look to in the coming years? There is not," Simitian said.
8 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
We got lucky yesterday afternoon when it came time for our walk. There was a thunderstorm rolling in over the Bitterroots from the west that cooled temperatures down by at lest 5° and provided cloud shade. We also got lucky that we did not get very wet, only a few sprinkles before getting back home.Another nice morning walk with the temperature in low 50s. Did not do our longer walk but did achieve 2 miles. The forecast high has been reduced slightly for the next few days but still calling for low 90s. That will keep our afternoon walks shorter unless we get some nice cooling like we did yesterday.
While it was still cool this morning I filled my fresh water tank. It had been showing ¼ tank remaining for the past 2-3 days then yesterday the full light on my gray water tank came on. That is a sure indicator for me that I need to dump tanks and add fresh water. I only have another week here so I don't think I'll be doing that chore again before I leave.
The 'new' (first published in 1935) novel that I traded for here at the Park is Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. Agatha Christie's and Sayer's novels were set at about the same time at the same place, post-WWI and mostly in London, England. Although Gaudy takes place in Oxford and of course Murder On the Nile was set in Egypt. Gaudy is one of 11 novels featuring detective Lord Peter Wimsey but begins rather slow and boring as characters are being formed. More on it later when/if things pick up.
Here is a very simple example of how the lame stream media slant/spin the News to fit their agenda. They not only slant/spin the News but they truly believe that we are to ignorant to detect what they are doing.
During his one-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard in August 2009 , Obama played golf compulsively, worked in some half-court basketball, obsessed over his morning fitness routine, took on Michelle in tennis and went biking and swimming with his daughters. The revelation that Obama, left to his own devices on vacation, is a competition-addicted jock should embarrass liberal Democrats. All through George W. Bush’s star-crossed presidency, liberals mocked his obsessive commitment to physical fitness as a symbol of Texas shallowness. Elaborate air castles of dubious psychological theories were built around the notion that Bush’s addiction to exercise was part of the same compulsive personality that once led him to heavy drinking. But when Obama displayed the same single-minded fanaticism about physical fitness, Democrats (when they mentioned it at all) chalked it up to the president’s well-rounded personality.
9 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
Patches and I braved the 95° high yesterday to do a short potty walk. It was much nicer this morning although at 6:00 it was 60° with the high to be nearly the same as yesterday.I will not see highs dip below 90 before I leave here next week. Then it looks like I am moving up in altitude but will still be faced with low 90s for the high. It is summer after all and I have been having it pretty good compared to the rest of the country so not whining. I would like it cooler however!
The baked Pescadero a la Veracruzana that I made was better than my previous fried preparation. I think it becomes even better as leftovers because it allows the fish to marinate longer in the sauce. I'll do it again!
I finished my Monthly blogs plus I added the one that I caught up to current. I did not get to read all of the Archives of that one however because they seem to no longer be available. I have restarted catching up on a blog that I was reading a couple of years ago that I gave up on because it was updated very seldom or the posting were blocked. It now has a new better format, more frequent postings and I have found no blocked postings yet.
I am also following the blog of a guy walking across the US of A. He started on May 2nd , I am now current and he has joined my Daily blogs. His original plan was to have his dog walk with him but the dog suffered leg problems so he adopted a pack goat. I never considered a pack goat but it looks like it is working out and I am hoping that they both make it. It is going to be tough but will get really tough when winter catches him on the road.
My friend Boonie created a fire storm of Comments with his posting of July 3rd Amerika's Most Obscene National Holiday wherein he postulated that we in America no longer have the freedom that we celebrate on July 4th. Among those Comments Boonie said that I wrote pithy comments to accompany the quotes in my postings.
Today I diverge from that path and will be posting a series of quotes from Social Statics by Herbert Spencer. I do not feel I can briefly summarize what he said in Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State which I think goes to the heart of what Boonie was talking about when he said we have lost our freedom.
This series will last a week with one part of the Chapter posted each day; we therefore begin:
§ 1.
As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but admit the right of the citizen to adopt a condition of voluntary outlawry. If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then he is free to drop connection with the state—to relinquish its protection, and to refuse paying towards its support. It is self-evident that in so behaving he in no way trenches upon the liberty of others; for his position is a passive one; and whilst passive he cannot become an aggressor. It is equally selfevident that he cannot be compelled to continue one of a political corporation, without a breach of the moral law, seeing that citizenship involves payment of taxes; and the taking away of a man’s property against his will, is an infringement of his rights (p. 134). Government being simply an agent employed in common by a number of individuals to secure to them certain advantages, the very nature of the connection implies that it is for each to say whether he will employ such an agent or not. If any one of them determines to ignore this mutual-safety confederation, nothing can be said except that he loses all claim to its good offices, and exposes himself to the danger of maltreatment—a thing he is quite at liberty to do if he likes. He cannot be coerced into political combination without a breach of the law of equal freedom; he can withdraw from it without committing any such breach; and he has therefore a right so to withdraw.
As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but admit the right of the citizen to adopt a condition of voluntary outlawry. If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then he is free to drop connection with the state—to relinquish its protection, and to refuse paying towards its support. It is self-evident that in so behaving he in no way trenches upon the liberty of others; for his position is a passive one; and whilst passive he cannot become an aggressor. It is equally selfevident that he cannot be compelled to continue one of a political corporation, without a breach of the moral law, seeing that citizenship involves payment of taxes; and the taking away of a man’s property against his will, is an infringement of his rights (p. 134). Government being simply an agent employed in common by a number of individuals to secure to them certain advantages, the very nature of the connection implies that it is for each to say whether he will employ such an agent or not. If any one of them determines to ignore this mutual-safety confederation, nothing can be said except that he loses all claim to its good offices, and exposes himself to the danger of maltreatment—a thing he is quite at liberty to do if he likes. He cannot be coerced into political combination without a breach of the law of equal freedom; he can withdraw from it without committing any such breach; and he has therefore a right so to withdraw.
10 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
It cooled off a lot around 5:00 yesterday afternoon when a storm moved in preceded by strong winds and blowing dust. It was about time for our afternoon walk but we waited for the dust to settle so to speak. The tempest calmed, after breaking off a number of tree limbs without dropping any rain, and we did a short potty walk with a stop at AutoZone parts store.A couple days ago the bulb in my range hood burned out and I have had a tough time seeing what I'm cooking. The two fellows at the store let me take Patches in with me and they made a fuss over her which she loved. I even got her to do a poor 'hand shake', she needs a bit more work on that.
The bulb replacement went much easier than I had anticipated because I was working by feel. With the bulb in my hand crammed into the small area where the socket was I could not see what I was doing. The harder, more troublesome, replacement was getting the plastic light cover back in place. Finally, I have light again.
This morning it was very overcast with thunderstorms in the mountains on both sides of the valley. We got our 2 mile walk completed with only a few sprinkles then about an hour after getting home we had a shower that would have left us wet. It was not much of a shower but did settle the dust.
The rest of the day was devoted to blogs, web News and trying to stay cool.
This excerpt is from an article written by Sally Nelson for The Daily Caller. I disagree with only one thing that is said in the article; that is the doctors will bail out of their careers. I don't think doctors are going to bail out of their careers but they probably will bail out of Medicaid and Medicare.
I also think there will be medical clinics/hospitals built in Mexican border towns by some of these doctors and they will continue to practice medicine for payments in cash by those that can afford it. These clinics/hospitals will join the dentist and pharmacies that now offer lower priced care along the Mexican border.
Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.Here is the second in the series of quotes from Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State in Social Statics by Herbert Spencer:
The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.
Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.
§ 2.
“No human laws are of any validity if contrary to the law of nature; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority mediately or immediately from this original.” Thus writes Blackstone, to whom let all honour be given for having so far outseen the ideas of his time; and, indeed, we may say of our time. A good antidote, this, for those political superstitions which so widely prevail. A good check upon that sentiment of power-worship which still misleads us by magnifying the prerogatives of constitutional governments as it once did those of monarchs. Let men learn that a legislature is not “our God upon earth,” though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
Nay, indeed, have we not seen (p. 13) that government is essentially immoral? Is it not the offspring of evil, bearing about it all the marks of its parentage? Does it not exist because crime exists? Is it not strong, or, as we say, despotic, when crime is great? Is there not more liberty, that is, less government, as crime diminishes? And must not government cease when crime ceases, for very lack of objects on which to perform its function? Not only does magisterial power exist because of evil, but it exists by evil. Violence is employed to maintain it; and all violence involves criminality. Soldiers, policemen, and gaolers; swords, batons, and fetters, are instruments for inflicting pain; and all infliction of pain is in the abstract wrong. The state employs evil weapons to subjugate evil, and is alike contaminated by the objects with which it deals, and the means by which it works. Morality cannot recognise it; for morality, being simply a statement of the perfect law, can give no countenance to anything growing out of, and living by, breaches of that law (Chap. I.). Wherefore, legislative authority can never be ethical—must always be conventional merely.
Hence, there is a certain inconsistency in the attempt to determine the right position, structure, and conduct of a government by appeal to the first principles of rectitude. For, as just pointed out, the acts of an institution which is in both nature and origin imperfect, cannot be made to square with the perfect law. All that we can do is to ascertain, firstly, in what attitude a legislature must stand to the community to avoid being by its mere existence an embodied wrong;—secondly, in what manner it must be constituted so as to exhibit the least incongruity with the moral law;—and thirdly, to what sphere its actions must be limited to prevent it from multiplying those breaches of equity it is set up to prevent.
The first condition to be conformed to before a legislature can be established without violating the law of equal freedom, is the acknowledgment of the right now under discussion—the right to ignore the state .
“No human laws are of any validity if contrary to the law of nature; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority mediately or immediately from this original.” Thus writes Blackstone, to whom let all honour be given for having so far outseen the ideas of his time; and, indeed, we may say of our time. A good antidote, this, for those political superstitions which so widely prevail. A good check upon that sentiment of power-worship which still misleads us by magnifying the prerogatives of constitutional governments as it once did those of monarchs. Let men learn that a legislature is not “our God upon earth,” though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
Nay, indeed, have we not seen (p. 13) that government is essentially immoral? Is it not the offspring of evil, bearing about it all the marks of its parentage? Does it not exist because crime exists? Is it not strong, or, as we say, despotic, when crime is great? Is there not more liberty, that is, less government, as crime diminishes? And must not government cease when crime ceases, for very lack of objects on which to perform its function? Not only does magisterial power exist because of evil, but it exists by evil. Violence is employed to maintain it; and all violence involves criminality. Soldiers, policemen, and gaolers; swords, batons, and fetters, are instruments for inflicting pain; and all infliction of pain is in the abstract wrong. The state employs evil weapons to subjugate evil, and is alike contaminated by the objects with which it deals, and the means by which it works. Morality cannot recognise it; for morality, being simply a statement of the perfect law, can give no countenance to anything growing out of, and living by, breaches of that law (Chap. I.). Wherefore, legislative authority can never be ethical—must always be conventional merely.
Hence, there is a certain inconsistency in the attempt to determine the right position, structure, and conduct of a government by appeal to the first principles of rectitude. For, as just pointed out, the acts of an institution which is in both nature and origin imperfect, cannot be made to square with the perfect law. All that we can do is to ascertain, firstly, in what attitude a legislature must stand to the community to avoid being by its mere existence an embodied wrong;—secondly, in what manner it must be constituted so as to exhibit the least incongruity with the moral law;—and thirdly, to what sphere its actions must be limited to prevent it from multiplying those breaches of equity it is set up to prevent.
The first condition to be conformed to before a legislature can be established without violating the law of equal freedom, is the acknowledgment of the right now under discussion—the right to ignore the state .
11 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
It continues to be hot, low 90s as a high and high 50s as the low, through Friday. The forecast is that we will then get a break with the highs dropping down into the low 80s. This means that for the next few days Patches and I will continue to do a 2 mile walk in the morning and about ½ mile one in the afternoon.Yesterday I realized that I had somehow dropped one of my Monthly blogs. I'm not sure how I keep dropping blogs off the list but it is probably how I go about saving them. Be that as it may, I have gone back to April on this one and am catching up once again.
My new mystery novel is moving along slowly. I think I have managed to get through the character development portion finally and a mystery has now made its presence known. I do hope that the current mystery is only a prelude to a bigger one however or I'm going to be even more disappointed than I am so far.
President Obama is out on the Campaign trail chastising the Republicans in Congress for not passing his bills that would move this country Forward. Meanwhile Senate Majority Leader Reid is blocking a vote on the bills in the Senate. If the President really wants to tax the rich then why does he not force Reid to bring the legislation up for a vote? Or, is this simply part of his Campaign 'stump speech' and he wants to blame the lack of legislation on the Republicans?
Republicans, eager to put Senate Democrats on record on taxes, tried to force a vote Wednesday on President Obama's proposal to extend middle-class tax cuts but raise taxes for the rich, but Majority Leader Harry Reid objected, essentially sidelining the president's plan.Here is part three in the series of quotes from Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State in Social Statics by Herbert Spencer:
Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republicans' leader, tried to set up competing votes — one on the GOP's plan to extend all the tax cuts for one year, and another on Mr. Obama's proposal to extend them only for households making $250,000 or less. But Mr. Reid objected to the request, saying he didn't want to have the vote on the GOP's legislation.
§ 3.
Upholders of pure despotism may fitly believe state-control to be unlimited and unconditional. They who assert that men are made for governments and not governments for men, may consistently hold that no one can remove himself beyond the pale of political organization. But they who maintain that the people are the only legitimate source of power—that legislative authority is not original, but deputed—cannot deny the right to ignore the state without entangling themselves in an absurdity.
For, if legislative authority is deputed, it follows that those from whom it proceeds are the masters of those on whom it is conferred: it follows further, that as masters they confer the said authority voluntarily: and this implies that they may give or withhold it as they please. To call that deputed which is wrenched from men whether they will or not, is nonsense. But what is here true of all collectively is equally true of each separately. As a government can rightly act for the people, only when empowered by them, so also can it rightly act for the individual, only when empowered by him. If A,B, and C, debate whether they shall employ an agent to perform for them a certain service, and if whilst A and B agree to do so, C dissents, C cannot equitably be made a party to the agreement in spite of himself. And this must be equally true of thirty as of three: and if of thirty, why not of three hundred, or three thousand, or three millions?
Upholders of pure despotism may fitly believe state-control to be unlimited and unconditional. They who assert that men are made for governments and not governments for men, may consistently hold that no one can remove himself beyond the pale of political organization. But they who maintain that the people are the only legitimate source of power—that legislative authority is not original, but deputed—cannot deny the right to ignore the state without entangling themselves in an absurdity.
For, if legislative authority is deputed, it follows that those from whom it proceeds are the masters of those on whom it is conferred: it follows further, that as masters they confer the said authority voluntarily: and this implies that they may give or withhold it as they please. To call that deputed which is wrenched from men whether they will or not, is nonsense. But what is here true of all collectively is equally true of each separately. As a government can rightly act for the people, only when empowered by them, so also can it rightly act for the individual, only when empowered by him. If A,B, and C, debate whether they shall employ an agent to perform for them a certain service, and if whilst A and B agree to do so, C dissents, C cannot equitably be made a party to the agreement in spite of himself. And this must be equally true of thirty as of three: and if of thirty, why not of three hundred, or three thousand, or three millions?
12 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
We had a brief thunderstorm pass through a little before our afternoon walk yesterday. It rained enough to wet down the streets and it cooled down 10-15° but then warmed back up again and felt even more uncomfortable than before because of the increased humidity.This morning I was feeling lazy and tired, or maybe that was tired and lazy. In either case Patches and I did a short potty walk of a little over ½ mile. I then sent my broker a sell order of my dollar position before the market opened based on what the Asian market had done overnight. It was a good move. I sold at a price that was 2¢ over my sell price a couple of weeks ago when the high for the day missed by 1¢.
I held this dollar position in UUP for a little over one year at a time when I may have earned as much as 0.25% interest, if I was lucky. Excluding broker commissions I was able to make 4.6% with the UUP trade. I wish all my trades were to work out as I had planned them but that has not been true of my investing history.
I did enter into another investment today upon the sale of the UUP. I have sold (HL) Hecla 4.50 Dec12 Puts for $0.74/share with cash-on-hand with my broker to provide the 'cover' if the Put is exercised.
There are two outcomes to this trade. First, the stock moves up above $4.50 before December 21, 2012, the Put expires worthless and I have made $0.74/share. Second, the stock does not move up, the Put is exercised and I must buy the stock for $4.50/share giving me a cost basis of $3.76/share. I could have bought HL today for $4.20/share but the share price would need to reach $4.94 before December 21, 2012 for me to be as well off as selling the Put and having it expire worthless. Now time and the market will tell if I have made a good decision.
After taking care of my investment portfolio (HA HA) we went to town. Breakfast was at The Coffee Cup again this morning where I had to pay full price, no Fathers Day ½ price deal for me today. Then stopped at Les Schwab Tire and had tire air pressure checked and air added. Final stop was at Albertsons to pick up groceries for the week.
When we got home I put another batch of Pescadaro a la Veracruzana into the Roaster to marinate for a few hours. I think it will still be better as leftovers after it has sat in the sauce for a few days but will see what the few hours might do.
There seems to be one member of the Federal Reserve that understands the economic problems that Europe and the US face and also understands the solution. He will never be appointed Chairman however, you can be almost assured of that.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said in a speech in London, “The political compromise in the U.S. has been to delay action until after the November election, but markets tend to pull the uncertainty forward.” He went on to say, “Increased government spending today followed by higher future taxes is not likely to produce more rapid growth. The most likely way forward continues to be a long period of debt pay down and sluggish growth, both in Europe and the U.S., and that the most pressing policy issue is to accept this path and prevent any additional problems from developing.”
Here is the fourth in the series of quotes from Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State in Social Statics by Herbert Spencer:
§ 4.
Of the political superstitions lately alluded to, none is so universally diffused as the notion that majorities are omnipotent. Under the impression that the preservation of order will ever require power to be wielded by some party, the moral sense of our time feels that such power cannot rightly be conferred on any but the largest moiety of society. It interprets literally the saying that “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” and transferring to the one the sacredness attached to the other, it concludes that from the will of the people, that is, of the majority, there can be no appeal. Yet is this belief entirely erroneous.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that, struck by some Malthusian panic, a legislature duly representing public opinion were to enact that all children born during the next ten years should be drowned. Does any one think such an enactment would be warrantable? If not, there is evidently a limit to the power of a majority. Suppose, again, that of two races living together—Celts and Saxons, for example—the most numerous determined to make the others their slaves. Would the authority of the greatest number be in such case valid? If not there is something to which its authority must be subordinate. Suppose, once more, that all men having incomes under £50 a year were to resolve upon reducing every income above that amount to their own standard, and appropriating the excess for public purposes. Could their resolution be justified? If not it must be a third time confessed that there is a law to which the popular voice must defer. What, then, is that law, if not the law of pure equity—the law of equal freedom? These restraints, which all would put to the will of the majority, are exactly the restraints set up by that law. We deny the right of a majority to murder, to enslave, or to rob, simply because murder, enslaving, and robbery are violations of that law—violations too gross to be overlooked. But if great violations of it are wrong, so also are smaller ones. If the will of the many cannot supersede the first principle of morality in these cases, neither can it in any. So that, however insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.
When we have made our constitution purely democratic, thinks to himself the earnest reformer, we shall have brought government into harmony with absolute justice. Such a faith, though perhaps needful for the age, is a very erroneous one. By no process can coercion be made equitable. The freest form of government is only the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also; only of a less intense kind. “You shall do as we will, and not as you will,” is in either case the declaration; and if the hundred make it to the ninety-nine, instead of the ninety-nine to the hundred, it is only a fraction less immoral. Of two such parties, whichever fulfils this declaration necessarily breaks the law of equal freedom: the only difference being that by the one it is broken in the persons of ninety-nine, whilst by the other it is broken in the persons of a hundred. And the merit of the democratic form of government consists solely in this, that it trespasses against the smallest number.
The very existence of majorities and minorities is indicative of an immoral state. The man whose character harmonizes with the moral law, we found to be one who can obtain complete happiness without diminishing the happiness of his fellows (Chap. III.). But the enactment of public arrangements by vote implies a society consisting of men otherwise constituted—implies that the desires of some cannot be satisfied without sacrificing the desires of others—implies that in the pursuit of their happiness the majority inflict a certain amount of unhappiness on the minority—implies, therefore, organic immorality. Thus, from another point of view, we again perceive that even in its most equitable form it is impossible for government to dissociate itself from evil; and further, that unless the right to ignore the state is recognised, its acts must be essentially criminal.
Of the political superstitions lately alluded to, none is so universally diffused as the notion that majorities are omnipotent. Under the impression that the preservation of order will ever require power to be wielded by some party, the moral sense of our time feels that such power cannot rightly be conferred on any but the largest moiety of society. It interprets literally the saying that “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” and transferring to the one the sacredness attached to the other, it concludes that from the will of the people, that is, of the majority, there can be no appeal. Yet is this belief entirely erroneous.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that, struck by some Malthusian panic, a legislature duly representing public opinion were to enact that all children born during the next ten years should be drowned. Does any one think such an enactment would be warrantable? If not, there is evidently a limit to the power of a majority. Suppose, again, that of two races living together—Celts and Saxons, for example—the most numerous determined to make the others their slaves. Would the authority of the greatest number be in such case valid? If not there is something to which its authority must be subordinate. Suppose, once more, that all men having incomes under £50 a year were to resolve upon reducing every income above that amount to their own standard, and appropriating the excess for public purposes. Could their resolution be justified? If not it must be a third time confessed that there is a law to which the popular voice must defer. What, then, is that law, if not the law of pure equity—the law of equal freedom? These restraints, which all would put to the will of the majority, are exactly the restraints set up by that law. We deny the right of a majority to murder, to enslave, or to rob, simply because murder, enslaving, and robbery are violations of that law—violations too gross to be overlooked. But if great violations of it are wrong, so also are smaller ones. If the will of the many cannot supersede the first principle of morality in these cases, neither can it in any. So that, however insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.
When we have made our constitution purely democratic, thinks to himself the earnest reformer, we shall have brought government into harmony with absolute justice. Such a faith, though perhaps needful for the age, is a very erroneous one. By no process can coercion be made equitable. The freest form of government is only the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also; only of a less intense kind. “You shall do as we will, and not as you will,” is in either case the declaration; and if the hundred make it to the ninety-nine, instead of the ninety-nine to the hundred, it is only a fraction less immoral. Of two such parties, whichever fulfils this declaration necessarily breaks the law of equal freedom: the only difference being that by the one it is broken in the persons of ninety-nine, whilst by the other it is broken in the persons of a hundred. And the merit of the democratic form of government consists solely in this, that it trespasses against the smallest number.
The very existence of majorities and minorities is indicative of an immoral state. The man whose character harmonizes with the moral law, we found to be one who can obtain complete happiness without diminishing the happiness of his fellows (Chap. III.). But the enactment of public arrangements by vote implies a society consisting of men otherwise constituted—implies that the desires of some cannot be satisfied without sacrificing the desires of others—implies that in the pursuit of their happiness the majority inflict a certain amount of unhappiness on the minority—implies, therefore, organic immorality. Thus, from another point of view, we again perceive that even in its most equitable form it is impossible for government to dissociate itself from evil; and further, that unless the right to ignore the state is recognised, its acts must be essentially criminal.
13 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: WA83 July 13, 1924Our afternoon walk yesterday was in the hottest temperatures yet at 95° but the 'heat index' was at ONLY 90. We didn't go far and walked on grass as much as we could. So much better this morning with the temperature in the low 60s, we did our usual 2 miles. Did mix up the route a little bit for my benefit, Patches does not mind the same route she seems to find new smells every day. Tomorrow is forecast to be much cooler with a 70% chance of rain, this is good if we can keep from getting wet.
After we got home I was reading my Daily blogs per usual and she was sitting in the passenger seat, also per usual. This morning there was a virtual dog show prance across in front of her and she was so good. There were a few whines but no barking, no jumping around and no running from window to window to keep watch on the passing dogs. Progress? Maybe so.
I am once again current with my Monthly blogs including the additions of those recently read from archives as well as the one dropped and then found. The English mystery novel continues to move along but is certainly not the page turner you find in more modern suspense novels.
The hard-fought welfare reform agreement struck between the Bill Clinton administration and a Republican-led Congress in 1996 (considered a signature legislative achievement from that period) is being unilaterally gutted by the Obama administration.
The Department of Health and Human Services quietly notified states, in a policy memo Thursday, that they may seek a waiver for the program's strict work requirements. Mitt Romney said: "President Obama now wants to strip the established work requirements from welfare, the linkage of work and welfare is essential to prevent welfare from becoming a way of life." Of course Mitt will be branded as being rich and heartless by President Obama on the Campaign trail and the lap dog media will sing the chorus.
This is the fifth in the series of quotes from Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State in Social Statics by Herbert Spencer:
§ 5.
That a man is free to abandon the benefits and throw off the burdens of citizenship, may indeed be inferred from the admissions of existing authorities and of current opinion. Unprepared as they probably are for so extreme a doctrine as the one here maintained, the radicals of our day yet unwittingly profess their belief in a maxim which obviously embodies this doctrine. Do we not continually hear them quote Blackstone’s assertion that “no subject of England can be constrained to pay any aids or taxes even for the defence of the realm or the support of government, but such as are imposed by his own consent, or that of his representative in parliament?” And what does this mean? It means, say they, that every man should have a vote. True: but it means much more. If there is any sense in words it is a distinct enunciation of the very right now contended for. In affirming that a man may not be taxed unless he has directly or indirectly given his consent, it affirms that he may refuse to be so taxed; and to refuse to be taxed, is to cut all connection with the state. Perhaps it will be said that this consent is not a specific, but a general one, and that the citizen is understood to have assented to everything his representative may do, when he voted for him. But suppose he did not vote for him; and on the contrary did all in his power to get elected some one holding opposite views—what then? The reply will probably be that, by taking part in such an election, he tacitly agreed to abide by the decision of the majority. And how if he did not vote at all? Why then he cannot justly complain of any tax, seeing that he made no protest against its imposition. So, curiously enough, it seems that he gave his consent in whatever way he acted—whether he said yes, whether he said no, or whether he remained neuter! A rather awkward doctrine this. Here stands an unfortunate citizen who is asked if he will pay money for a certain proffered advantage; and whether he employs the only means of expressing his refusal or does not employ it, we are told that he practically agrees; if only the number of others who agree is greater than the number of those who dissent. And thus we are introduced to the novel principle that A’s consent to a thing is not determined by what A says, but by what B may happen to say!
It is for those who quote Blackstone to choose between this absurdity and the doctrine above set forth. Either his maxim implies the right to ignore the state, or it is sheer nonsense.
That a man is free to abandon the benefits and throw off the burdens of citizenship, may indeed be inferred from the admissions of existing authorities and of current opinion. Unprepared as they probably are for so extreme a doctrine as the one here maintained, the radicals of our day yet unwittingly profess their belief in a maxim which obviously embodies this doctrine. Do we not continually hear them quote Blackstone’s assertion that “no subject of England can be constrained to pay any aids or taxes even for the defence of the realm or the support of government, but such as are imposed by his own consent, or that of his representative in parliament?” And what does this mean? It means, say they, that every man should have a vote. True: but it means much more. If there is any sense in words it is a distinct enunciation of the very right now contended for. In affirming that a man may not be taxed unless he has directly or indirectly given his consent, it affirms that he may refuse to be so taxed; and to refuse to be taxed, is to cut all connection with the state. Perhaps it will be said that this consent is not a specific, but a general one, and that the citizen is understood to have assented to everything his representative may do, when he voted for him. But suppose he did not vote for him; and on the contrary did all in his power to get elected some one holding opposite views—what then? The reply will probably be that, by taking part in such an election, he tacitly agreed to abide by the decision of the majority. And how if he did not vote at all? Why then he cannot justly complain of any tax, seeing that he made no protest against its imposition. So, curiously enough, it seems that he gave his consent in whatever way he acted—whether he said yes, whether he said no, or whether he remained neuter! A rather awkward doctrine this. Here stands an unfortunate citizen who is asked if he will pay money for a certain proffered advantage; and whether he employs the only means of expressing his refusal or does not employ it, we are told that he practically agrees; if only the number of others who agree is greater than the number of those who dissent. And thus we are introduced to the novel principle that A’s consent to a thing is not determined by what A says, but by what B may happen to say!
It is for those who quote Blackstone to choose between this absurdity and the doctrine above set forth. Either his maxim implies the right to ignore the state, or it is sheer nonsense.
14 July
Black Rabbit RV Park
Hamilton, MT
It was very overcast this morning looking like it could rain at any moment. Because of that and my general laziness we did a short potty walk with a stop for me to get coffee. We did this without a backpack on Patches and she was really frisky.I can get away with not putting her backpack on in the afternoon but she is a handful in the morning without it. It is amazing the difference that the backpack makes in her temperament.
When we got home I started laundry before the machines were taken. Got it finished before 8:00 and had no others come in while I was there. The advantage of an early start. This was the last chore needing to be done before I un-hook from electric and get back on the road tomorrow morning.
President Obama has been chanting the mantra 'problems built up over decades' while on the Campaign trail. Does that mean he blames Clinton? Reagan? For nearly 25 years — during those bad old decades — the economy increased 3.3 percent annually. Unemployment dropped from 11 percent to 6 percent to 5 percent to below 4 percent.
Now he says we are 'moving in the right direction' with Obamanomics: spending stimulus, housing bailouts, auto bailouts, financial bailouts, cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, and $5 trillion in deficit spending has led to an Obama recovery dead last in modern times.
Then we have the challenger, Romney, on the stump chanting what we already know 'the policies of Obama are not working'. Whereas his policies are so nebulous they could mean almost anything, a lot like promising Hope and Change. Sorry, Mitt that is not going to cut it this election cycle your going to have to be more specific.
This is the sixth in the series of quotes from Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State in Social Statics by Herbert Spencer:
§ 6.
There is a strange heterogeneity in our political faiths. Systems that have had their day, and are beginning here and there to let the daylight through, are patched with modern notions utterly unlike in quality and colour; and men gravely display these systems, wear them, and walk about in them, quite unconscious of their grotesqueness. This transition state of ours, partaking as it does equally of the past and the future, breeds hybrid theories exhibiting the oddest union of bygone despotism and coming freedom. Here are types of the old organization curiously disguised by germs of the new—peculiarities showing adaptation to a preceding state modified by rudiments that prophecy of something to come—making altogether so chaotic a mixture of relationships that there is no saying to what class these births of the age should be referred.
As ideas must of necessity bear the stamp of the time, it is useless to lament the contentment with which these incongruous beliefs are held. Otherwise it would seem unfortunate that men do not pursue to the end the trains of reasoning which have led to these partial modifications. In the present case, for example, consistency would force them to admit that, on other points besides the one just noticed, they hold opinions and use arguments in which the right to ignore the state is involved.
For what is the meaning of Dissent? The time was when a man’s faith and his mode of worship were as much determinable by law as his secular acts; and, according to provisions extant in our statute-book, are so still. Thanks to the growth of a Protestant spirit, however, we have ignored the state in this matter—wholly in theory, and partly in practice. But how have we done so? By assuming an attitude which, if consistently maintained, implies a right to ignore the state entirely. Observe the positions of the two parties. “This is your creed,” says the legislator; “you must believe and openly profess what is here set down for you.” “I shall not do anything of the kind,” answers the nonconformist; “I will go to prison rather.” “Your religious ordinances,” pursues the legislator, “shall be such as we have prescribed. You shall attend the churches we have endowed, and adopt the ceremonies used in them.” “Nothing shall induce me to do so,” is the reply; “I altogether deny your power to dictate to me in such matters, and mean to resist to the uttermost.” “Lastly,” adds the legislator, “we shall require you to pay such sums of money towards the support of these religious institutions, as we may see fit to ask.” “Not a farthing will you have from me,” exclaims our sturdy Independent: “even did I believe in the doctrines of your church (which I do not), I should still rebel against your interference; and if you take my property, it shall be by force and under protest.”
What now does this proceeding amount to when regarded in the abstract? It amounts to an assertion by the individual of the right to exercise one of his faculties—the religious sentiment—without let or hindrance, and with no limit save that set up by the equal claims of others. And what is meant by ignoring the state? Simply an assertion of the right similarly to exercise all the faculties. The one is just an expansion of the other—rests on the same footing with the other—must stand or fall with the other. Men do indeed speak of civil and religious liberty as different things: but the distinction is quite arbitrary. They are parts of the same whole and cannot philosophically be separated.
“Yes they can,” interposes an objector; “assertion of the one is imperative as being a religious duty. The liberty to worship God in the way that seems to him right, is a liberty without which a man cannot fulfil what he believes to be Divine commands, and therefore conscience requires him to maintain it.” True enough; but how if the same can be asserted of all other liberty? How if maintenance of this also turns out to be a matter of conscience? Have we not seen that human happiness is the Divine will—that only by exercising our faculties is this happiness obtainable—and that it is impossible to exercise them without freedom? (Chap. IV.) And if this freedom for the exercise of faculties is a condition without which the Divine will cannot be fulfilled, the preservation of it is, by our objector’s own showing, a duty. Or, in other words, it appears not only that the maintenance of liberty of action may be a point of conscience, but that it ought to be one. And thus we are clearly shown that the claims to ignore the state in religious and in secular matters are in essence identical.
The other reason commonly assigned for nonconformity, admits of similar treatment. Besides resisting state dictation in the abstract, the dissenter resists it from disapprobation of the doctrines taught. No legislative injunction will make him adopt what he considers an erroneous belief; and, bearing in mind his duty towards his fellow-men, he refuses to help through the medium of his purse in disseminating this erroneous belief. The position is perfectly intelligible. But it is one which either commits its adherents to civil nonconformity also, or leaves them in a dilemma. For why do they refuse to be instrumental in spreading error? Because error is adverse to human happiness. And on what ground is any piece of secular legislation disapproved? For the same reason—because thought adverse to human happiness. How then can it be shown that the state ought to be resisted in the one case and not in the other? Will any one deliberately assert that if a government demands money from us to aid in teaching what we think will produce evil, we ought to refuse it; but that if the money is for the purpose of doing what we think will produce evil, we ought not to refuse it? Yet, such is the hopeful proposition which those have to maintain who recognise the right to ignore the state in religious matters, but deny it in civil matters.
There is a strange heterogeneity in our political faiths. Systems that have had their day, and are beginning here and there to let the daylight through, are patched with modern notions utterly unlike in quality and colour; and men gravely display these systems, wear them, and walk about in them, quite unconscious of their grotesqueness. This transition state of ours, partaking as it does equally of the past and the future, breeds hybrid theories exhibiting the oddest union of bygone despotism and coming freedom. Here are types of the old organization curiously disguised by germs of the new—peculiarities showing adaptation to a preceding state modified by rudiments that prophecy of something to come—making altogether so chaotic a mixture of relationships that there is no saying to what class these births of the age should be referred.
As ideas must of necessity bear the stamp of the time, it is useless to lament the contentment with which these incongruous beliefs are held. Otherwise it would seem unfortunate that men do not pursue to the end the trains of reasoning which have led to these partial modifications. In the present case, for example, consistency would force them to admit that, on other points besides the one just noticed, they hold opinions and use arguments in which the right to ignore the state is involved.
For what is the meaning of Dissent? The time was when a man’s faith and his mode of worship were as much determinable by law as his secular acts; and, according to provisions extant in our statute-book, are so still. Thanks to the growth of a Protestant spirit, however, we have ignored the state in this matter—wholly in theory, and partly in practice. But how have we done so? By assuming an attitude which, if consistently maintained, implies a right to ignore the state entirely. Observe the positions of the two parties. “This is your creed,” says the legislator; “you must believe and openly profess what is here set down for you.” “I shall not do anything of the kind,” answers the nonconformist; “I will go to prison rather.” “Your religious ordinances,” pursues the legislator, “shall be such as we have prescribed. You shall attend the churches we have endowed, and adopt the ceremonies used in them.” “Nothing shall induce me to do so,” is the reply; “I altogether deny your power to dictate to me in such matters, and mean to resist to the uttermost.” “Lastly,” adds the legislator, “we shall require you to pay such sums of money towards the support of these religious institutions, as we may see fit to ask.” “Not a farthing will you have from me,” exclaims our sturdy Independent: “even did I believe in the doctrines of your church (which I do not), I should still rebel against your interference; and if you take my property, it shall be by force and under protest.”
What now does this proceeding amount to when regarded in the abstract? It amounts to an assertion by the individual of the right to exercise one of his faculties—the religious sentiment—without let or hindrance, and with no limit save that set up by the equal claims of others. And what is meant by ignoring the state? Simply an assertion of the right similarly to exercise all the faculties. The one is just an expansion of the other—rests on the same footing with the other—must stand or fall with the other. Men do indeed speak of civil and religious liberty as different things: but the distinction is quite arbitrary. They are parts of the same whole and cannot philosophically be separated.
“Yes they can,” interposes an objector; “assertion of the one is imperative as being a religious duty. The liberty to worship God in the way that seems to him right, is a liberty without which a man cannot fulfil what he believes to be Divine commands, and therefore conscience requires him to maintain it.” True enough; but how if the same can be asserted of all other liberty? How if maintenance of this also turns out to be a matter of conscience? Have we not seen that human happiness is the Divine will—that only by exercising our faculties is this happiness obtainable—and that it is impossible to exercise them without freedom? (Chap. IV.) And if this freedom for the exercise of faculties is a condition without which the Divine will cannot be fulfilled, the preservation of it is, by our objector’s own showing, a duty. Or, in other words, it appears not only that the maintenance of liberty of action may be a point of conscience, but that it ought to be one. And thus we are clearly shown that the claims to ignore the state in religious and in secular matters are in essence identical.
The other reason commonly assigned for nonconformity, admits of similar treatment. Besides resisting state dictation in the abstract, the dissenter resists it from disapprobation of the doctrines taught. No legislative injunction will make him adopt what he considers an erroneous belief; and, bearing in mind his duty towards his fellow-men, he refuses to help through the medium of his purse in disseminating this erroneous belief. The position is perfectly intelligible. But it is one which either commits its adherents to civil nonconformity also, or leaves them in a dilemma. For why do they refuse to be instrumental in spreading error? Because error is adverse to human happiness. And on what ground is any piece of secular legislation disapproved? For the same reason—because thought adverse to human happiness. How then can it be shown that the state ought to be resisted in the one case and not in the other? Will any one deliberately assert that if a government demands money from us to aid in teaching what we think will produce evil, we ought to refuse it; but that if the money is for the purpose of doing what we think will produce evil, we ought not to refuse it? Yet, such is the hopeful proposition which those have to maintain who recognise the right to ignore the state in religious matters, but deny it in civil matters.
15 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
We got a light rain last night soon after I went to bed. That made for a humid morning but it was in the low 60s so pleasant for our walk.When we got home it was time to un-hook from electric and go next door to fill up with gas. I thought about doing that on the way home from our shopping trip but decided to put it off and see if the price fell some more. I got lucky for a change and saw a 6¢ drop; paying the lowest price since December 16, 2011 in Sierra Vista, AZ.
The plan was the to drive to Darby, MT and have breakfast at the Silver Spoon. There were glowing reviews on the Internet about what a great place it was and how good the breakfasts were. I also found information on the Internet that they were open at 6:00, hours of operation are usually hard to find. They were closed! I stopped at a gas station and found out that it had been sold and not re-opened yet.
Finally found a cafe´ open at The Village at North Fork some 70 miles later. The Village also includes a gas station, convenience store and post office – it is the 'downtown' of North Fork, ID.
I was in light rain from the top of Lost Trail Pass all the way down to North Fork. It quit while I was having breakfast but I got into another brief shower just south of Salmon. Lots of thunderheads all around Challis Valley when I got here and then a light shower a couple hours later, a gentle breeze and reasonably cool with a forecast of low 80s through Friday.
There is nothing 'Resort' about this RV Park but the couple that own it are the nicest folks that I have found as managers of any Park. They want me to be happy with my stay here and seem to be willing to go out of their way to make sure it happens.
The route today was only 152 miles and all on US93.
I didn't need a 3x5 card with route instructions to find my new home. There was even a sign on the side of the road that showed me where I needed to turn because the Park is a block east of US93.
The last in this series of seven quotes from Chapter XIX The Right to Ignore the State in Social Statics by Herbert Spencer:
§ 7.
The substance of this chapter once more reminds us of the incongruity between a perfect law and an imperfect state. The practicability of the principle here laid down varies directly as social morality. In a thoroughly vicious community its admission would be productive of anarchy. In a completely virtuous one its admission will be both innoeuous and inevitable. Progress towards a condition of social health—a condition, that is, in which the remedial measures of legislation will no longer be needed, is progress towards a condition in which those remedial measures will be cast aside, and the authority prescribing them disregarded. The two changes are of necessity co-ordinate. That moral sense whose supremacy will make society harmonious and government unnecessary, is the same moral sense which will then make each man assert his freedom even to the extent of ignoring the state—is the same moral sense which, by deterring the majority from coercing the minority, will eventually render government impossible. And as what are merely different manifestations of the same sentiment must bear a constant ratio to each other, the tendency to repudiate governments will increase only at the same rate that governments become needless.
Let not any be alarmed, therefore, at the promulgation of the foregoing doctrine. There are many changes yet to be passed through before it can begin to exercise much influence. Probably a long time will elapse before the right to ignore the state will be generally admitted, even in theory. It will be still longer before it receives legislative recognition. And even then there will be plenty of checks upon the premature exercise of it. A sharp experience will sufficiently instruct those who may too soon abandon legal protection. Whilst, in the majority of men, there is such a love of tried arrangements, and so great a dread of experiments, that they will probably not act upon this right until long after it is safe to do so.
The substance of this chapter once more reminds us of the incongruity between a perfect law and an imperfect state. The practicability of the principle here laid down varies directly as social morality. In a thoroughly vicious community its admission would be productive of anarchy. In a completely virtuous one its admission will be both innoeuous and inevitable. Progress towards a condition of social health—a condition, that is, in which the remedial measures of legislation will no longer be needed, is progress towards a condition in which those remedial measures will be cast aside, and the authority prescribing them disregarded. The two changes are of necessity co-ordinate. That moral sense whose supremacy will make society harmonious and government unnecessary, is the same moral sense which will then make each man assert his freedom even to the extent of ignoring the state—is the same moral sense which, by deterring the majority from coercing the minority, will eventually render government impossible. And as what are merely different manifestations of the same sentiment must bear a constant ratio to each other, the tendency to repudiate governments will increase only at the same rate that governments become needless.
Let not any be alarmed, therefore, at the promulgation of the foregoing doctrine. There are many changes yet to be passed through before it can begin to exercise much influence. Probably a long time will elapse before the right to ignore the state will be generally admitted, even in theory. It will be still longer before it receives legislative recognition. And even then there will be plenty of checks upon the premature exercise of it. A sharp experience will sufficiently instruct those who may too soon abandon legal protection. Whilst, in the majority of men, there is such a love of tried arrangements, and so great a dread of experiments, that they will probably not act upon this right until long after it is safe to do so.
So, Spencer realized when he wrote this that it was impractical to ignore the State; it was a part of his philosophy for happiness and freedom, something to strive for. However, I think he was spot on when he said “ the tendency to repudiate governments will increase only at the same rate that governments become needless”. Our society needs government more and more so that is what it gets. Spencer would probably be appalled by the degree of government interference there is in our lives today until he studied the moral character of our society. He would then use us an example to support his philosophy.
There are some practical ways to ignore the State for increased freedom and I think Fulltimers or Fulltimer Boondockers are practitioners. This does not mean that they can not, or do not, grouse about the lack of freedom in our country and society. At some future date I may comment on those practical ways but for now will continue to spew my gripes and rant on our society.
16 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
It was a very nice 54° for a low this morning. Total overcast that has stayed all day making for a nice cool day that might not reach the expected 81. I thought I heard a few sprinkles during the morning but there were not enough of them and they did not last long enough to be called rain.Patches and I walked north on US93 to Main Street, or ID75, then west until we had reached one mile. This put us just past the library that I was interested in finding and about a block short of Wells Fargo bank which I also wanted to locate. I hoped to see a barber shop also but did not happen to see one, I need to visit one when I find it.
That walk allowed me to see almost all of the business district there is in Challis. The one market in town is a couple of blocks south of me which we walked to yesterday afternoon. There is what the 'locals' call their Wal*Mart directly across US93 from the Park entrance road. It is an all-in-one kind of store that also has a few grocery items.
The Park owners have offered to take me with them when they go shopping in Salmon, ID which I may do after trying to find my week supplies here for the first week. They think nothing of driving 120 miles round trip for their grocery shopping.
One of my Daily blogs wrote that she had a hard time finding what she wanted in the small towns of WY and was VERY put out about it. She just has not yet discovered, and accepted, that is the way it is in the small scattered town of the West. Challis, ID has a population of just over 1,000 so people here drive to the bigger town, population a little over 3,000, to shop.
On Friday evening, over 20 people collapsed at a campaign event for President Obama in Roanoke, Virginia, Joel Gehrke reported at the Washington Examiner. According to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, Obama told supporters there were "paralegals" available to help those who felt weak from the heat.
He did quickly correct his gaffe to say that paramedics were available. However, the lame stream media gave him a pass on this gaffe like they have on so many others so as not to diminish their prior build up of him being a grand speaker and the smartest guy in the room. Can you imagine what they, and the comedians, would be doing with this News item if it had been spoken by Sarah Palin or former Presidents Bush I or II?
17 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
It was a little cooler this morning at 51° but perfect sleeping weather. I have an early rising dog companion that sleeps all day however and wants to be out and about at daybreak, so we were. We did the same route going out as we did yesterday but then turned south at the bank for a few blocks and then back east to home. Stopped at The Village Inn Restaurant to pick up a cup of coffee on the way back which will be my usual routine in the mornings.
Our afternoon walks will probably all be about 1 mile round trip to the south and east past the grocery store to a vacant field were I let Patches run for a little bit yesterday. She had a good time running and there are a LOT of smells to keep her interested.
Yesterday afternoon Patches alerted me that a trespasser was nearing. I looked around searching for a dog nearby and didn't see one but then spotted two deer about 100 yards away. This morning she missed the one that almost came to our door, it passed the rear of Desperado by only a few feet. There are also a few loose dog wandering around so I need to keep an eye open when we are out and about.
The Challis Valley is much smaller than the Bitterroot and much drier. It is bowl shaped with mountains surrounding it and would have been called a 'hole' if the fur trappers had found and named it. The mountains are not covered with trees as are the Bitterroots and I enjoy them more because of that. The view out my window across the valley to the mountains on the east is one that I could look upon for a long time.
The Park owner told me they do not get much rain or snow and I have experienced that lack of rain. The two afternoons that I have been here it has rained all around the valley with scattered showers in the mountains but none here. I was also told that it gets very cold in the winter, -20° or -25 is not uncommon.
The buildup of clouds in the afternoon helps keep it cooler and as long as the breeze keeps blowing it is very comfortable. Today may be the last of those days with the forecast highs to move up into the upper 80s and maybe even touch 90 during the next 10 days. That is still pretty nice compared to most of the country!
18 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
This morning was nice and cool but the day warmed up quickly. I had the A/C on around noon for lack of a breeze. Yesterday it was near 85° before I went to the A/C today it was closer to 80 with the high late today to be near 90.Our walk this morning was a new route (about 2.5 miles) to the north on US93 for about ¾ mile then to the west until we reached the foothills on the northwest side of town then south and back home. Along the way we saw two deer grazing in the front yard of homes. The first one spooked when she saw us but the second one was intent on getting some apples out of a tree and wasn't going to let an old codger and his dog run her off. She never did spook as we walked within 50 feet of her, Patches lunging at her once and me calling her down.
After we got home from our walk we went to 'town'. As I have indicated there is not much town to go to but I had a good breakfast at The Y Inn Restaurant. It has good reviews on the Internet and lived up to them. While I was there I asked the waitress where I could get my hair cut. She said the town barber had died recently and has not been replaced but a new salon, open for a couple of weeks, was taking men for hair cuts.
I went to her shop and found it closed at 8:00 so went to Lambs Market only to find it closed also. Back to the shop where I waited until 9:00 while trying to read my Daily blogs, VERY slow Verizon that would have blogs time out and not open. Still not open so I went back to Lambs and got most of the items that I wanted for groceries this week.
One more stop at the salon on the way home and found her to be open. She said that she usually does not open until 10:00 but would come in earlier if I wanted. We agreed on 8:00 for next Tuesday. I don't have any idea of how well she cuts hair but she should do a fine business cutting it for the young men in town. She is a young, pretty, petite blond that I think should draw a crowd.
19 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
It is forecast to be even hotter today that the 91° that we had yesterday. It was just as hot by noon but we did have a slight breeze so maybe turn on the A/C a little later. The morning was in the comfortable lower 50s which always makes for good walking.We did only a short ½ mile in the heat yesterday afternoon but were back to a little over 2 miles again this morning. Our route was the same as the first days that we were here but noticed something different this morning.
There were two southern ID disaster trailers parked in the 'downtown' area but I didn't pay them much attention. This morning one of them had the rear doors open and there was a washer and dryer set up in a small room at the back of the trailer. While I was looking at this and wondering what it was all about a fellow called to me from across the street.
He was the equipment maintenance man for the two trailers and we had a good chat. The trailers belong to Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Disaster Relief but are being used to support some volunteers from TN. They have been in town for a while painting city fire hydrants and fixing roofs, windows or other property repairs of individuals that can not afford to do so.
After we got home we had visitors again. There were two does pass through just across the road in front of our space. Then soon after a buck stopped by and grazed for a long time on the fresh grass along the road edge and then jumped the fence and nibble on a homeowners small garden. Not long after that another doe came by and was grazing within 20 feet of Desperado.
All this time Parches was whining and wanting to go play with them but she never barked. I did sit with her and praised her for not barking and kept telling her that they were not big dogs. She seemed to go along with this and was such a GOOD girl. Yesterday we passed a dog here in the Park that she lunged toward but a pull on the leash and a NO was enough to get us past without anymore reaction. Maybe, she is getting better!
In 2010 President Obama wanted to 'tax the rich' by only extending the Bush Tax Cuts for those making less than $250,000. He reversed his position, extended the cuts for everyone for one year and said the following:
"I am just listening to the consensus among people who know the economy best. And what they will say is that if you either increased taxes or significantly lowered spending when the economy remains somewhat fragile, that that would have a destimulative effect and potentially you'd see a lot of folks losing business, more folks potentially losing jobs. That would be a mistake when the economy has not fully taken off."He has once again taken the position that the cuts should be only for those making less than $250,000. Does this mean that the economy has fully taken off? Or, is it because the private sector of the economy is doing fine, as he claims? Or, is this simply an effort to confiscate money from the rich to punish them for the success that “they did not build”?
20 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 20, 1924It was overcast this morning which kept the overnight low at 66°. Still cool enough to make our morning walk the usual 2+ miles. The high yesterday was 93° so we only did a short potty walk. It is expected to cool down a little today but will still be too hot for a very long walk in the afternoon.
We walked north on US93 again as we did on our long route but turned around at the Challis Area Health Center. Seeing the Center again made me think that I have not seen any doctor offices but did notice some lawyers offices.
A Google Search found that there are no individual doctors practicing here in Challis, and I think the Center has only a Physicians Assistant on permanent staff. There are five lawyers however not counting the County Attorney. Which reminded me of the joke: A small town that cannot support one lawyer can always support two.
The crowning achievement of today was for me to get the August Will Rogers weekly article links ready to be added to my Friday posts. Now all I need to do is remember to add them. I am also making good progress on the English mystery novel in spite of its slow action and numerous British slang words (most can be understood in context).
When I finish this book I'll be out of reading material. The Park does not have an exchange library but the owner said that she had some books I could look through for a trade. She also directed me to a second hand store in town that she thought had a selection of very cheap books that I'm going to check out. The problem with that store is its hours; 12:00 to 4:00 except closed on Wednesday and Sunday.
Campaign 2012 in full swing now although the two candidates have not been nominated by their respective Conventions. That has not stopped either of them from getting out on the Campaign Trail and giving their stump speeches. I'm not sure that it is going that well for either of them and offer up this bit of sage advice from Will Rogers. ”I don’t care how smart you are, if you say something you are liable to say something foolish and the smarter you are, and the longer you talk the more fool things you will say.”
The quote below is from an article Obama's Enemies List—Part II by Kimberley A. Strassel. In the article she goes on to give much more benefit of doubt than I do that this is all a coincidence and was not a hit directed by the President. However, if it was not directed by the President then those that answer to him (the IRS and Labor Department) are certainly not doing him any favors and he could put a stop to what appears to be harassment of an individual because of his political beliefs. Do I think that will happen, NO.
This column has already told the story of Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho businessman who last year contributed to a group supporting Mitt Romney. An Obama campaign website in April sent a message to those who'd donate to the president's opponent. It called out Mr. VanderSloot and seven other private donors by name and occupation and slurred them as having "less-than-reputable" records.
Mr. VanderSloot has since been learning what it means to be on a presidential enemies list. Just 12 days after the attack, the Idahoan found an investigator digging to unearth his divorce records. This bloodhound—a recent employee of Senate Democrats—worked for a for-hire opposition research firm.
Now Mr. VanderSloot has been targeted by the federal government. In a letter dated June 21, he was informed that his tax records had been "selected for examination" by the Internal Revenue Service. The audit also encompasses Mr. VanderSloot's wife, and not one, but two years of past filings (2008 and 2009).
Mr. VanderSloot, who is 63 and has been working since his teens, says neither he nor his accountants recall his being subject to a federal tax audit before. He was once required to send documents on a line item inquiry into his charitable donations, which resulted in no changes to his taxes. But nothing more—that is until now, shortly after he wrote a big check to a Romney-supporting Super PAC.
Two weeks after receiving the IRS letter, Mr. VanderSloot received another—this one from the Department of Labor. He was informed it would be doing an audit of workers he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa program for temporary agriculture workers.
21 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
A little cooler this morning, back down into the upper 50s. The cooler forecast yesterday did come to pass but only by 2°, I didn't notice the difference. They are calling for a similar reduction today but that will still have us at 90.We walked 'downtown' again this morning but did the route clockwise for some change. Went past 3-4 barking dogs that Patches was able to ignore which was very good. I also noticed that the Disaster trailers were gone so I'm guessing the volunteers have also left town.
In looking for information on Challis, ID I found that 72% of the population is affiliated with the Mormon church (LDS). This made me think it strange that Southern Baptist were in town providing help when the Mormon church has a good reputation for taking care of 'their own'. Perhaps the volunteers were helping others since only 40% of the population actually belongs to a Mormon congregation.
I finished my English mystery novel and found that I did have an unread book. That will now give me something to read while I trade and/or pick up some more books from the second hand store in town.
The Park owner picked up Patches and I and drove us to the Farmers Market in the city park. It was very well attended and if you do not get there at 10:00 the pickings could be pretty slim. There were maybe a couple dozen vendors offering vegetables, plants, jams/jellies, a few crafts and two had bread. I did not get any bread today because I have a loaf and either it or the new purchase would go bad before I could eat them both. Maybe next Saturday?
Patches and I then walked back home in the increasing heat. It was near 80° when we got home and even hotter inside due to a lack of wind. Turned on the A/C before noon. The forecast is for slightly cooler days to come but still in the mid to upper 80s.
ALL the weekend News will be about the Aurora, CO shooting. The lame stream media will be more guarded in its reporting than ABC was but they will none the less be focusing on the same agenda (the big lie). This quote is from an Opinion With Extreme Prejudice by James Taranto in The Wall Street Journal.
"An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect," ABC News said in a statement. "ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted."*The British philosopher Roger Scruton has coined a term to describe this attitude: oikophobia. Xenophobia is fear of the alien; oikophobia is fear of the familiar: "the disposition, in any conflict, to side with 'them' against 'us', and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably 'ours.'"
This strikes us as insufficient. Simply as a matter of journalistic craft, the report was appallingly shoddy. Ross pointed the finger at an innocent man based on nothing but the coincidence of a common name and the man's residence in the same city of 325,000 where the crime took place.
Let us amend that. There was one other factor, and this is what makes the ABC error not just amateurish but sinister: the innocent Jim Holmes's involvement with the Tea Party. For more than three years liberal journalists have falsely portrayed the Tea Party as racist and potentially violent. After the January 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., speculation immediately began that the suspect was a Tea Partier. Even after it was proved that he was not, the New York Times published a despicable editorial blaming conservatives anyway.
Ross and ABC were out on this limb alone. Either other journalists learned their lesson from Tucson, or it didn't occur to them to look for a political motive this time (it was a more plausible hypothesis in a shooting that targeted a politician).
It is reasonable to interpret Ross's hasty unsubstantiated report as an expression of hostility--bigotry--toward the Tea Party and those who share its values, which are traditional American ones. ABC's carelessness here is in sharp contrast with the way the mainstream media treat criminal suspects who are black or Muslim. In those cases they take great pains not to perpetuate stereotypes, sometimes at the cost of withholding or obscuring relevant facts such as the physical description of a suspect who is still at large or the ideological motive for a crime.
Oikophobia* is no less invidious than other forms of bigotry. ABC and Ross have apologized for their irresponsible reporting, but they have something more to answer for here. Their careless and inadvertent falsehood was in the service of a big lie.
I'll add only one other remark concerning this shooting and the Tucson Massacre. Did no one, other than the shooter, have a gun? If they did, why was it not used? Is it possible that someone in the movie theater did have a gun but the Zimmerman case may have influenced their willingness to use it?
22 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
The weather experts got it all wrong yesterday. The high went up to 94° rather than down. They are going to try again today with their same forecast of 90 but they are also predicting almost 100 on Thursday.Patches and I did our 2 miles this morning by going out and back on US93 north. The Northgate Inn was our turnaround and they had a very big group of motorcyclist stay overnight there last night. My space in the Park is far enough from away from US93 that I can barely hear a group go by but US93 seems to be quite a popular motorcyclist route.
I checked my fresh water tank level a couple of days ago and found it to be down to the last ¼ of the tank. Then yesterday my gray water tank was showing full so it was dump time. I did that this morning after breakfast while it was still cool and I could also work in the shade of Desperado while doing it. I also took on fresh water so should be good again for 10 days to 2 weeks.
President Obama is going to Colorado to comfort the shooting victims families as he did for the Fort Hood and Tucson Massacres. I would guess he will be giving a memorial speech also as he did on those two other occasions. In both of those prior speeches the President avoided his usual self aggrandizement which I assume he will do again.
After those two prior speeches his popularity and poll numbers went up so I expect the same will happen if he gives the same kind of speech. This may be his chance to turn the election around in his favor and move the focus away from the economy. In the words of the Godfather, Emanuel Rahm, “Never let a crisis go to waste”. The same can be said for a tragedy.
23 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
The good weather news is that the forecast has been revised downward so the highest temperature expected is 95° on Friday. The bad news is that it will be near 90 for the next 10 days.The mornings are still very nice and have moved back into the 50s for the lows. Patches and I did the 'downtown' route out and back this morning. She was very mellow this morning until we got home and she saw a couple of bucks strolling through the Park. That got her excited for a few minutes. She seems to know that they are different from horses and cows but I don't think she knows what they are and wants to go find out.
I went to the Park office at about 9:00 to pick up a couple of books that I trading for and was able to get them. But, the owners wife was going to buy me some cod while in Boise yesterday and she is not back with it yet. I didn't understand that she was staying overnight to see a Reba McIntyre show and would not be back until this afternoon. I'm not desperate for the fish so that will not be a problem.
The quote below is from an Associated Press story that was picked up by Yahoo News. How many others in the lame stream media will also run this story is unknown at this time but my guess is that it will be few. Multiple deaths on the highway are just not News anymore.
There will be little said about this unless a drunk driver can be blamed, then there will be activist groups calling for more drunk driving laws. There will be no Presidential visits to the surviving victims of the crash nor to the families of the dead. There will be no official Half-Staff Proclamations from the President nor any Presidential speeches at a memorial for the dead. Our culture accepts such carnage as an American way of life, part of the American Dream, part of Happy Motoring that is now looked upon as a “right” in this country.
At least 11 (updated to 14) people died Sunday and another 12 (now 9) were injured after a pickup truck loaded with passengers left the highway and crashed into trees in rural South Texas, authorities said.This is from a related Associated Press story that makes my point about our cavalier acceptance of death on the highway as simply a way of life in our culture.
State troopers and Goliad County sheriff's investigators were investigating what prompted the single-vehicle crash and did not immediately know the names and ages of the victims. Gerald Bryant, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press they were various ages and that he personally saw two young children among the dead at the scene."This is the most people I've seen in any passenger vehicle, and I've been an officer for 38 years," Bryant said, referring to the chaotic scene.
Traffic deaths soared 13.5 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year, and the number of deaths per miles driven also rose significantly, according to preliminary government estimates released Friday.
An estimated 7,630 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the first three months of 2012, up from 6,720 deaths in the first quarter of last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said...
"We are disappointed in the news, but not particularly surprised," Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said. "Unprecedented gains have been made since 2006 in reducing traffic deaths. So, from that low baseline, an increase is not unexpected."
24 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
I gave Patches a taste of her own medicine this morning. I got up at 4:30 thinking that it was 5:30 and she was NOT into getting up. When I realized my mistake I dozed on the couch until about 5:15 when she thought it was now time to get up.We did a new route to the south behind Lambs Market then on ATV trails parallel to US93 until Dump Rd where we turned west and went up into the foothills. There was a great view of the Challis Valley from our turnaround point on Dump which means we will do this route again.
When we got home I un-hooked from electric and went to the Village Inn Restaurant for breakfast; this is where I have been getting my morning coffee almost every day. After having a nice omelet we went around the block to the salon for my hair cut appointment. That was taken care of in about ½ hour at great expense. For some reason it cost more to have your hair cut in a salon versus a barber shop no matter where you are.
I then stopped at what the locals call their Wal*Mart and went in just to browse. They have a fair selection of canned goods and basic food items but the produce and meat sections are even more limited than Lambs. Therefor, it was on to Lambs to pick up my groceries for the week.
Stopped at the Park office on the way in after shopping to pick up my cod only to find that the owners wife had not bought any. Her traveling companion was not feeling well and they left town without doing any shopping. I was invited to ride to Salmon within the next few days so I can get some then. I did see one package of frozen cod at the Superstore here this morning but it was very expensive and who knows how old so I passed.
I promptly put some of my purchases to good use by building a batch of flat enchiladas. Not very labor intensive and good for 3-4 'linners'. What to do: fry tortillas in some oil to soften, layer bottom of Roaster the sprinkle a covering of cheese, diced onion, shredded iceberg lettuce and enchilada sauce: repeat as many layers as you want (I did three). Then baked it at 300° for about 30 minutes and it was 'linner' time.
It was up to 90° again yesterday for the high but I did not have the A/C on at all. There was a good breeze blowing and it felt comfortable until late in the day when the breeze dropped and I then turned on the fan which was enough. Today seems to be following the same pattern with a forecast that it will be cooler, but not by much.
The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. How many billions or trillions have been spent on that war since the Office of Economic Opportunity, established that year, was made responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs: VISTA, Job Corps, Head Start, Legal Services and the Community Action Program?
All of those programs are still fighting by throwing money at the problem but they have not won many battles much less the War. Economists surveyed by the Associated Press project that the poverty rate will climb from 2010's 15.1% and reach a level as high as 15.7%. This will mean that more Americans are poorer than at any time since 1965.
I think we, as a nation, have wasted as much money with War on Poverty plus War on Drugs spending as we have on shooting wars during the same time period. We admitted defeat in Vietnam, victory with honor in Iraq and claim to have achieved our goal in Afghanistan; I think it is time we just claim that we have won the other two Wars and quite spending borrowed money.
25 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
It was slightly cooler this morning at 51° but felt cooler than that. Just the opposite of yesterday when the high fell below 90 to 89 and it felt hotter. I had the A/C on for part of the afternoon again. Today we got a little storm around midday that held the temperatures down and kept the breeze up; very nice.We did a very short potty walk to the Park office in that late afternoon heat where I exchanged a couple more books. This morning was our usual 2 miles, this time to the Health Center and back. The Center had added a mobile mammography unit from St Luke's (probably from Caldwell, ID or maybe McCall) since the last time we were by there.
I also picked up a package of forwarded mail that I had sent here to the Park. In it was a Post Card from the VA setting an appointment for me on June 21st, another Post Card that said I had missed the appointment and then a letter from the VA setting another appointment for September 26th at the same location in Las Vegas. I think this is an appointment in their Orthopedic Clinic although the letter does not say that specifically. I have sent a Secure Message to my PA in Pahrump asking for clarification and information on how I can get to the appointment and return to Pahrump. More to come when I know more.
26 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
The morning low temperatures continue to drop lower with it at 48° this morning. That does not carry through to reduced high temperatures however. We are still in the low 90s or high 80s and that is the forecast into next month. This has me running the A/C on most days from soon after noon to around 8:00 pm.When we got home from our walk this morning I did my laundry and read Daily blogs while doing so, a multitasker par excellence. Then after I ate breakfast I was going to take two books to the Park office to trade again (one of them that I picked up the other day I had read before). As I stepped out of Desperado I felt some water hitting my arm.
AHAA, I have finally found my water leak. I have had the water pump cycling on for the past 3-4 days but could not find where the leak was. I pulled the refrigerator vent off and there it was, a cracked water pipe to the ice maker which I do not use. I shut the valve off at the water manifold and was just going back inside to see what else I had shut off when the Park owner stopped by with my fish.
They were gone all day yesterday to Twin Falls and Pocatello to finalize the purchase of the Park which they have been improving on for the past 19 months. While there they got me some fish and then made a present of it to me. He also looked at my water leak problem and said it would be nothing to fix it so he got his tools and had it fixed in a couple of minutes. That was two gifts to me in rapid order!
This quote is from Social Statics Chapter XXVIII § 2 written some 160 years ago with the same arguments that are now raised against ObamaCare. Nothing has changed in all that time and nothing will probably change within the next 160 years. It was the opinion of Herbert Spenser that the government had NO duty to protect the health of its subjects, I agree with that opinion. To do so the government must have the universal supervision of private conduct; something that I am not willing to grant the government.
Moreover this doctrine, that it is the duty of the state to protect the health of its subjects, cannot be established, for the same reason that its kindred doctrines cannot, namely, the impossibility of saying how far the alleged duty shall be carried out. Health depends upon the fulfilment of numerous conditions—can be “protected” only by ensuring that fulfilment: if, therefore, it is the duty of the state to protect the health of its subjects, it is its duty to see that all the conditions of health are fulfilled by them. Shall this duty be consistently discharged? If so, the legislature must enact a national dietary: prescribe so many meals a day for each individual; fix the quantities and qualities of food, both for men and women; state the proportion of fluids, when to be taken, and of what kind; specify the amount of exercise, and define its character; describe the clothing to be employed; determine the hours of sleep, allowing for the difference of age and sex: and so on with all other particulars, necessary to complete a perfect synopsis, for the daily guidance of the nation: and to enforce these regulations it must employ a sufficiency of duly-qualified officials, empowered to direct every one’s domestic arrangements. If, on the other hand, a universal supervision of private conduct is not meant, then there comes the question—Where, between this and no supervision at all, lies the boundary up to which supervision is a duty? To which question no answer can be given.
27 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: July 27, 1924There was a noticeable difference in the temperature this morning 64° versus the 48 of yesterday. That low was a carry over from the 96 high yesterday and a cloud cover during the night.
The forecast continues to call for the low 90s and high 80s which would be welcome after yesterday. But, it looks like we are going to have another hot one. With the wind very calm at 11:00 I had the A/C on. Patches is my resident thermostat, when she starts to pant inside Desperado then it is time for some cooler air.
She and I did the southern route again but this time continued past Dump Rd until we reached a one mile turnaround. The cloud overcast made it very dark during most of that first mile although it is getting light later each day now. On the way back we met an oncoming ATV that had a big dog in a homemade box on the back. Fortunately it was laying down and Patches either did not notice or was very good.
She did remember where we saw two deer yesterday however. They were not there this morning but she was intent on seeing them again in that same place. She did the same thing in Hamilton where she saw a rabbit, she was very watchful of that same place then every time we passed. Smart Girl!
I cooked up most of the gifted cod by making baked pescado a la veracruzana again. This time I made up the sauce early in the day and let it marinate the fish for a few hours before baking. I think it will still be better as left overs but will see. Gave a couple of pieces to the Park owners for them to try and to express my thanks.
I have included most of the story about GM that was posted on-line by The Washington Free Beacon. You will probably not see this story covered by any of the lame stream media because it does not fit their agenda and is a big negative for their preferred presidential candidate. President Obama 'bet' taxpayer money, he bankrupt the GM bondholders and then divided GM up between the Auto Union and the federal government.
I must admit that I still think that by banking with Ally Bank I am banking with the strongest bank in the country; I have the entire taxing powers of the federal government behind my bank's capitalization.
Despite President Barack Obama’s stories about a resurgent GM ready to repay its bailout tab, the automaker and its former bank still owe taxpayers nearly $42 billion, according to an inspector general’s report. GM owes $27 billion on the nearly $50 billion it received from the auto bailout and Ally Bank, the company’s lending arm, owes $14.7 billion of the $17.2 billion taxpayer-funded bailout it received.
Obama has promoted the auto bailout as a success story, highlighting the manufacturing jobs it may have saved in swing states such as Ohio and Michigan. “I refused to turn my back on a great industry and American workers. I bet on American workers. I bet on American manufacturing,” he said at a campaign rally in Oakland. “Three years later, the American auto industry has come roaring back.”
GM’s stock has plummeted in recent months after stagnant development in overseas markets. It hit a new low on Wednesday, falling to $18.80, a 52 percent drop from its January 2011 high of $38.90. “In order to recoup its total investment in GM, Treasury will need to recover an additional $27 billion in proceeds. This translates to an average of $53.98 per share on its remaining common shares in New GM,” the IG report concluded.
The federal government has maintained a 32 percent ownership interest in GM, despite promises to sell off its shares after the November 2010 IPO. The administration has also maintained a controlling interest in Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC. Financial experts see the election-year creeping into the decision to hold on to the falling stock. “Geithner and the rest of Treasury doesn’t want to admit that it is a mess and they’ve been lying to us for three years,” Christopher Whalen, cofounder of Institutional Risk Analytics, told the Washington Free Beacon in April. “They’re waiting until after the election.”
28 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
It cooled down a little yesterday afternoon when a thunderstorm moved in during a two hour period and sprinkled. I thought that was all it would do, as it has in the past, and started for the office when it actually rained enough to wet down the streets (maybe .01”). That plus a clear sky this morning led to a 51° low this morning.Patches and I did the north out and back route. We were almost in the dark again by starting at 5:40 but there is almost no traffic and wide shoulders so it is safe enough.
I had also planned on riding to the Farmers Market with the Park owner again and then walking back like I did last week. I found out that her plans had changed after she picked me up but she still took me to the market. She then said she would dog sit Parches in the truck while I went and got what I wanted. It was already getting plenty hot so I rode back rather than walk.
The only thing that I wanted was some homemade sourdough bread. It is a round loaf that has not much rise to it, pretty flat, but about 12” across with a thin but firm crust and a good firm texture. These are not your featherweight store loaves either, they must weigh 1 ½ pounds or more. I tried a slice when I got home and I think I'm going to like it. Bought two loaves!
Most of the day was then devoted to reading and keeping cool.
29 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
The daily weather has become very repetitive with the highs staying around 90° and the lows around 50. Then starting after noon the clouds build up and there are thunderstorms in the mountains surrounding the valley but little or no rain in the valley. The 10 day forecast is for that pattern to continue.There is a byproduct to the cloud build up. In the late afternoon they provide a cloud shadow show on the wide screen of the valley's eastern mountains. Never a summer re-run, always a premier showing; just settle back and take in the moving pictures that the sun and clouds provide.
Our walk this morning was the downtown out and back route. Because of the afternoon temperatures we are only doing ½ mile or maybe one mile walks so our daily total distance has been slightly less than 3 miles.
The good thing about those distances has been that I'm not experiencing any knee pain either while walking or at night. I do feel some right hip pain while walking but not very severe. Much better than it was.
The only thing I did different from my daily routine was start my monthly routine. By that I mean I started to prepare the Will Rogers weekly article links for September.
I do not have many readers of my blog postings but within this past week I had someone stop by from North Pole, Alaska (Pop. 2,117) and Beijing, China. I get even fewer emails from readers but would have liked to have heard from those two. If nothing else I would like to know how and/or why they found me.
North Pole caught my attention because I knew that every year Santa Letters are mailed from there. Since 1952 over a million such letters have been postmarked North Pole.
The lame stream media put forth the idea that if Obama were elected he would be the great unifier of the races in this country. That has continued to be a part of their agenda during his presidency although President Obama has said: "I never bought into the notion that by electing me, somehow we were entering into a postracial period."
The President was correct, the media was wrong, and he has mostly avoided race as an issue with immigration being the major exception. This is shown in the poll results over the past 3 ½ years with fewer people thinking race relations have improved and more thinking they have become worse.
Shortly before the 2008 election, 56 percent of Americans surveyed by the Gallup organization said that race relations would improve if Obama were elected. One day after his victory, 70 percent said race relations would improve and only 10 percent predicted they would get worse.
An October 2009 Gallup poll showed a large drop in racial optimism since the election, with 41 percent of respondents saying that race relations had improved under Obama. Thirty-five percent said there was no change and 22 percent said race relations were worse.
An August 2011 Gallup poll showed a further decline in racial optimism: 35 percent said race relations had improved due to Obama's election, 41 percent said no change, and 23 percent said things were worse.
This April, in a poll by the National Journal and the University of Phoenix, 33 percent felt race relations were getting better, 23 percent said they were getting worse, and 42 percent said they were staying about the same.
30 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
We did the southern out and back route a little later this morning and had the same ATV with dog come up behind us this time. They seem to be on about the same schedule that we are but they turn and go west on Dump Rd up into the foothills.When we got home I disconnected from electric and we went to town. Not downtown, just over to the Village Inn Restaurant for breakfast. Then back to the Village Square, what locals call their Wal*Mart, where I bought about ½ of my groceries for this week; mostly packaged and canned goods.
Then a couple more blocks to the south at Lambs Market I picked up mostly produce items and anything else that I wanted. On the way home, about a ½ block from Lambs, I stopped at a roadside produce stand, Volcanic Farms, that is here only on Monday and got a couple pounds of cherries.
That was it for the day and it exhausted Patches. She has been asleep on the couch ever since we got home. She did wake up briefly to huff and puff a little until I turned on the A/C and cooled the place down enough for her to get back to sleep. A tell you, she has never had it so good!
I finished reading one of the books that I traded for here at the Park and have started on a second one. This one is a Tami Hoag hard back book (which looks new) that the owner picked up for 50¢ while in Twin Falls or Pocatello. I want to finish it before I leave and get it back to her because she has not read it and is a Hoag fan.
31 July
Challis Valley RV Resort
Challis, ID
It was really a hot one yesterday with a high of 98°. That has not changed the experts opinion about the future however they are sticking to their near 90 forecast.It made for a very short potty walk in the afternoon. I took Patches to three patches of grass near our space before she found acceptable places to go. We then beat a hasty retreat to the cool of A/C that was running most of the time to keep it that way.
Staying inside except for our morning walk. This morning it was to the Health Center and return. Across from the Village Inn Restaurant where we stop to get coffee almost every morning is where Patches saw deer and she expects to see them there again every morning. This morning there was a beautiful 3 point buck just to the south of where we had seen them before.
Patches wanted to go see him in the worst way and then barked at him a couple of times and he trotted away. Then not long after we got home there was a 2 point buck come grazing along the road in front of use. He was followed soon after by 3 does that walked withing 10' of Desperado. Patches was pretty good with their trespass, she did bark but shut up quickly when I commanded he to do so.
Getting a lot of reading done with the hot weather. It is just much more comfortable to lay on the couch and read than even think about being out in the heat. I should finish the Tami Hoag book by tomorrow. I can the take the books back as well as a container that held some chili that the Owners gave me. Trade books and trade containers.
This happened in Bloomberg's Big Apple or maybe it should be re-named Nanny City. The good mayor is a VERY strong anti-gun advocate so I would expect him now to also propose some 'hammer control laws'.
The demented hammer-wielder will probably get charged with assault, attempted murder and a hate crime because of his remarks about the President and the Clintons. It also wouldn't surprise me if the NYT doesn't have an editorial that tries to link his attack to the Tea Party in some way.
A Spanish tourist was attacked by a hammer-wielding man, apparently at random, while sitting inside City Hall Park (at Murray Street and Broadway) Monday afternoon, authorities say. The assailant reportedly hit the victim in the head several times and screamed obscenities at him. Witnesses said he made erratic remarks about President Obama and the Clintons.