Peregrinating
2015

June

1 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I got the 2012 map rebuild finished yesterday afternoon although it require a few bytes over my daily quota. I think I am in good shape to avoid any overcharge this month and it is due to NetWorx. With it I know where my usage is during the day, with Verizon I only know where I am at the beginning of each day. Three more days in the billing cycle to go - we will see.

I needed to proof and edit that 2012 map and got that done today. Have replaced the Google My Map that was in the drop down menu with it and have only two more of those to do. Now it is time to tackle the 2008 Quest Teardrop Trip. I will be happy if I can get that done within 3-4 weeks.

I received a Secure Message from Ally Bank today that had a Dispute Form attached. This was very secure. I had to register with Cisco Registered Email Service which took some time. Then they did not send me an activation message so I contacted them using their Chat and got it and then the form to open. Could not fill out the form on-line so I then had a Chat with Ally Bank.

I now know that I need to find a business here in Milan or Grants that will open the .pdf form, print it, allow me some time to fill it out and the either scan it and return via email of Fax to Ally Bank. I didn't have much luck finding such a business with a quick Google Search. I'll make an inquiry at the Park office when they reopen this afternoon. Something I need to get done this week so an additional trip to town is on the agenda.

Fred Reed has a good article this week Turn Out the Lights and Lock the Door - I Hear the Fat Lady Singing saying stuff that the Ministry of Propaganda refuses to say. He is lucky to be living in Mexico but the powers that be can still drone him there. I can imagine President Obama sitting in the White House bunker shuffling the cards to pick the next target - how long will it be before he picks Fred's card?

Almost daily, friends send me links to accounts of what seem to them, and to me, lunacy, usually accompanied by notes expressing incredulity and - this will matter one day--anger. The stories deal with things utterly repugnant to much of the country, especially the South and West, the blue collar, the military, and much of the Mid-West:: racial lawlessness, glorification of every sexual weirdity anyone can imagine, hostility to Christianity (but not to Judaism or Islam), phony charges of rape, compulsory Ritalin-ingestion, grotesque affirmative action in the hiring of cops and firemen, attacks on academic standards, little boys dragged from school in handcuffs for drawing a soldier, the anti-gun crusade, the truffle-hound search for "stereotypes" and discrimination, and the denigration of masculinity and every aspect of white European culture.
And, always, always, the suppression of news of the unending vicious attacks by er, teens, on whites. This latter goes beyond bias into undeclared censorship. Er, teens can loot, burn, and rape, and not much happens to them, but if you are white and say "nigger" in an email, you lose your job.
We have two countries that do not like each other at all.

2 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

While we on our afternoon walk yesterday I saw a tractor-trailer carrying equipment, lighting and maybe the stage for the Toby Keith Good Times & Pick Up Lines Tour. He played in Phoenix, AZ at the Ak-Chin Pavilion on 31 May 2015 and is next scheduled for Hunter, N.Y. - Taste of Country Music Festival on 14 Jun then back to Colorado by 19 Jun.

The tractor indicated that it was operated by Stage Call Specialized Transportation. Check out their web page to see some of the other performers that they have provided transport for.

Our morning routine was normal until I had finished my first cup of coffee. We then left for Habigers Service Print that the Park office said was a block past McDonalds (never ask a local for directions) which I found to be a little over 1/2 mile past.

The Park office was right that they could help me but I had to wait for that to happen. I could not find any hours of operation when I searched the web but thought they would open at 8:00. Wrong. The business must be a hobby; they are open 9:00-4:00 M-F although I will say that they did open the doors at the stroke of 9:00 although I saw employees enter at 8:30.

I got the .pdf file sent to them as an attachment to an email, they printed it, I filled out the form but could not find a FAX # on the form as I had been told so did another Chat with Ally Bank. We sent the completed and signed form back to them via Fax and I was on my way in about a half hour.

We found another walking route yesterday afternoon that I'll be doing some more while we are here. It is along gravel County Road 25 that parallels I-40 on the south side for a little over 1.5 miles before turning east/southeast into the Cibola National Forest. There it dead ends at 2-3 homes/ranches after another 3 miles. No traffic or very little can be expected. The only negative is that we need to walk about 3/4 mile to get to the road.

3 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

My west side neighbor left yesterday in the early afternoon. He/she/they have not stayed in their Class C more than a couple of nights as far as I could tell. Very quiet neighbors as has been the east side neighbor that has not been living in the 5th wheel very often either. The west side space will now probably have overnighters in it during the remaining days that I am here.

I got the first month of markers for the 2008 Quest Total Trip map finished yesterday. That is the easy part of the project. I'll now start building the individual route maps that follow my route from camp to camp. These are the more time and byte consuming part of the project. When I finish them I'll go back to the Total Trip for the second month.

Today I made up my 3x5 route card that will get me to my next camp. It was easily done since I'll be doing a reverse of the route that I drove last fall. Selected a breakfast stop and will fill up with gas here before I leave.

I filled out a Domain Transfer Complaint Form with the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) yesterday. Among the many, many rules that this organization has Domain Registrars operating under is: "You tried unsuccessfully to retrieve the Auth-Code from your domain name's control panel and you asked the registrar to provide you the Auth-Code, but it was not sent within the five days following your request".

I think this is the situation with Yahoo/Melbourne IT so I filed a Transfer Complaint. I did that yesterday and have received no reply from ICANN, Yahoo or Melbourne IT. So, it looks like ICANN is simply another dead end in my attempt to get my Domain transferred to Web Hosting Hub.

This quote is from The Daily Caller a politically conservative news and opinion website. The same quote can be found all over the Internet at other conservative websites but only FoxNews and the Washington Post, within the Ministry of Propaganda, picked it up. I would have thought the Ministry would be on this like white on rice (a double politically incorrect phrase).

President Barack Obama said Monday that his administration has lifted the U.S. to become "the most respected country in the world." Obama made the claim during a discussion with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Fellows at the White House.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: People don't remember, but when I came into office, the United States in world opinion ranked below China and just barley above Russia, and today once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth, and part of that I think is because of the work we did to reengage the world and say that we want to work with you as partners with mutual interests and mutual respect. It was on that basis we were able to end two wars while still focusing on the very real threat of terrorism and to try to work with our partners in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's the reason why we are moving in the direction of normalize relations with Cuba. The nuclear deal that we are trying to negotiate with Iran.

What kind of ego, arrogance, moral compass and disrespect must one have to make such claims? What kind of man blatantly lies on camera knowing that reality will reveal itself? ...That Obama said such things suggests three possibilities, none of them attractive:

1. Obama is pathologically ill and should be making no decisions for anyone.
2. Obama believes that anything he says, regardless of how untrue and outrageous, will be believed by his supporters (and most of the press corps is included in this group).
3. Both 1 and 2 could apply.

4 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

On our afternoon walk yesterday we went through the Petro Truck Stop parking lot. Compared to when Boonie and I walked through there on Sunday it was abandoned with not a quarter of the trucks that where there then.

There was one however that interested me and the driver was at the truck. He was carrying copper anodes^* and I had always wanted to know how much each one of them weighed so I asked the driver. He said he did not know if they each weighed the same but that he was carrying 51 of them that weighed 42,000 pounds.

^*Anodes are basically two-inch thick slabs of copper about three feet wide and three-and-a-half feet tall including the two handles (or lugs) molded into the top, each weighing between 750 and 850 pounds. The anodes he was transporting most likely came from the ASARCO copper smelter in Hayden, AZ.

I noticed that the Park was full again this morning. I also had a small 5th wheel, with the tow vehicle still hitched, as a west side neighbor. I expect they will be gone by the noon checkout time as will a lot of the other rigs that came in yesterday.

I got 5 of the 2008 Quest route maps built yesterday and this morning. Most of them have been easy with the most difficult one being through a large city where I went off a direct route onto city streets but even that one was not as bad as I expected.

Started a new billing month with Verizon today. Don't know what my final usage for last month will be until I get my bill but I am expecting to be .16GB under my limit. If that is where I do end up then it is all due to my having NetWorx keeping track of what my usage is every day.

5 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

When I was thinking about getting up this morning I heard it was raining. It was a short shower but we did an in the Park potty walk. It looked like it could rain hard at any moment and I started the walk under my umbrella. Has remained threatening most of the day with the weather guessers giving it a 60% chance today and 50% chance tomorrow.

I got 4 route maps built yesterday afternoon and 2 this morning. They have been easier to build than those for the 2007 Teardrop Trip. I think part of that is I was using paper maps in 2007 and then had Google Maps available during 2008. I did not always follow the suggested Google routes but it seems that I followed them closer than in 2007. Moving along pretty well so far but I'm still west of the Mississippi, I know the builds will become more difficult in the east.

The Bureau of Labor released their non-farm job numbers for May today that showed an increase of 280,000 jobs. The Ministry of Propaganda is touting this as "confirming hopes that growth is back on track". They don't have as much to say about the Unemployment Rate going back up to 5.5% as they did when it fell 0.1% in April.

The CES Birth/Death Model added 213,000, the same as in April, to that total for the month. The April job numbers were revised slightly which reduced the number created, other than by the Birth/Death Model, even more. This is ignored by virtually everyone.

If you look at the Household Data the number of Employed increased for the twelfth consecutive month with 272,000 being added in May. This is also ignored, the Ministry of Propaganda preferring to focus on the Unemployment Rate (when declining) even if there is good News to be reported.

The Unemployed went up by 125,000 but the Not in the Labor Force declined by 205,000 which means a lot of people started looking for a job again but everyone didn't find one. That is what led to increase in the Unemployment Rate by 0.1% to 5.5%.

The Participation Rate ticked up by 0.1% to 62.9% and the Not in the Labor Force at 92,986,000 fell from the all time record set in April. The Ministry ignores Not in the Labor Force or the Participation Rate in their spin articles mostly because they do not understand them.

The average earnings increased by 9¢ to $24.96 an hour while the average workweek continuing to stay at 34.5 hours. I think the Federal Reserve is getting the wage inflation numbers and the Unemployment Rate that they need as cover for their rate increase . The past two months job increase numbers, although most of the created jobs have come from the Birth/Death Model also support the Fed's anticipated rate increase.

6 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

We were very lucky yesterday afternoon. The rain came again when we were within 100 yards of Desperado, we only had a few big fat drops hit us. If we had been outside for another 3 minutes we would have been WET. It looked bad when we started out but did not look any worse when it started to rain.

Cloudy this morning but clearing by 8:00 then clouds moving in again by noon. We went to El Rancho to have breakfast but they were still closed so went back to WOW Diner. Had their make your own omelet again, this time with spinach, sausage and blue cheese. A big serving of hash browns came with it and the coffee was fair.

Another quick trip to Brooks market which would have been even quicker if it were not for the price checks. The register clerks have a very difficult time with produce and since I buy a lot every week that slows the check out line - a lot. Then there is almost always one item that does not scan a price and that calls for a price check. Having said all that I was back in my space at the Park by 8:00.

I think I have transferred my Domain from Yahoo but I'm not sure. I hated to do it but I called Yahoo Customer Care this morning and got a Indian (in India) on the phone that I could not understand. He finally got the Registration Key sent to me via email from Melbourne IT. I then promptly followed the 4 Steps online offered by Web Hosting Hub and received this message:

Since your domain is being hosted with the same registrar we use, it has been pulled into our account using the registry key you specified. Within 1 minute, you will be able to use the link below to modify your domain details:

You do not have any domains to manage.

7 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

As if I have not had enough technological problems with my Domain transfer; yesterday my blood pressure monitor expired. It was showing signs that it might be getting ready to quit working but I did not know that was what they were until it quit giving me a reading.

Ordered a LifeSource UA-1030T monitor yesterday with an expected delivery at my new camp a couple days before my arrival. It has a talking feature that I did not care about but do like the 3 readings then averaged feature. The monitor that died was given to me by the VA in Reno in 1999, I think, so perhaps it had reached its 'use by date'.

I did get my domain transferred yesterday. After sending Web Hosting Hub yet another email about not being able to manage the domain that had been transferred I received this reply.

The domain's billing item just needed to be adjusted to a domain type instead of the generic one that get generated by the manual transfers. We've had this adjusted for you and you should be able to see your domain from the domains section in AMP.

When logged into your AMP account, the only reference to yahoo that I am seeing is your email address: edlfrey@yahoo.com.

8 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I had this waiting for me in my edlfrey@edwardfrey.com In Box yesterday morning. An email from Melbourne IT wanting me to verify my email address.

To continue using the domain name [edwardfrey.com] we must verify your email address, please Click Here or copy and paste this link into your web browser https://servicemanagement.melbourneit.com.au/dn/email?domainName=edwardfrey.com&activationCode=14131033637607867
Please note that if you do not verify this address, for domain name policy reasons this domain name be suspended. This means that any website or email services associated with will stop working.

HTTP Status 400
type Status report
message description: The request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect. Apache Tomcat/7.0.35

We have sent an email to MelbourneIT to have this investigated and resent. I am actually not completely sure there is an issue here. As we have control of your domain. I see no reason why they need to verify your email address. Just to be safe we are reaching out to them.

9 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I had more emails about my domain transfer yesterday from Melbourne IT. One was responding to a Support Enquiry that I made sometime last week and the other was a generic Support message. Both of them telling me to contact Web Hosting Hub for any help I may need. Politely telling me to "bugger off" and do what I had decided that I had to do since MIT was not going to do anything for me.

I got a couple more of the same auto generic Support messages today telling me to contact Web Hosting Hub. It is curious that they are being sent to clear my Support Enquiries made when Yahoo was the reseller. They never sent those messages until after the transfer. Do they know that telling people to contact Yahoo is asking for more grief to be directed toward themselves.

I also received an email from ICANN saying that they had assigned a number to my complaint with them. They really move quickly on complaints I must say, it has also been about a week. I sent a reply to that email saying that the complaint had been resolved. They in turn sent me an email today that said the complaint had been closed.

I also checked my Ally Bank account yesterday morning and found that Yahoo had given me back the money that gave rise to my filing a Disputed Charge. I had a Chat with Ally Bank again and told them that I had received the money from Yahoo and that they should reverse the provisional credit they had given me.

Nothing new about verifying my email with MIT but that could take a week or more they way they seem to operate. From the very few emails that I have received from MIT Support I think I detect foreign phraseology so they may be using Indian (in India) staff also.

Web Hosting Hub does not have the sharpest tools in the drawer working their Support but I think they are American (perhaps Diversified-American but American none the less). They may not always understand my question or may not always provide the correct/best answer but they do so promptly and use non-geek, common American English when doing so.

Chat at Ally Bank has been a VERY pleasant experience. I do not like Chat but Ally Bank does it right! I can not say the same for Web Hosting Hub but what I said above covers the reason why.

This is the first book that I have read by Sharyn McCrumb and I had mixed feelings about it. The Weekly describe it as "multi-tiered" which may be what they call a story that jumps from one character to another and from the present to the past with little to link them together. For me, it was like reading 3-4 books without ever having to put down the one that I had in my hand. I did enjoy the historical background and take exception to the Weekly's comment that Keith "join up with the Confederate Army in hopes of earning money". He was conscripted by the Confederacy and had little choice, the enlistment bonus was a sop. The Weekly also had nothing to say about the "War" never ended for the mountain people, that was the basic theme/premise of the book. I would like to find more of her books because of the historical settings that she is said to use. Historical fiction is my novel of choice.

Bestselling North Carolina writer McCrumb (The Songcatcher, etc.) returns with another epic ballad of a novel, a multi-tiered Civil War story that links past and present with an otherworldly twist. Tough, resilient Malinda Blalock is dismayed when her husband, Keith, leaves their Appalachian mountain farmstead to join up with the Confederate Army in hopes of earning money. Not content to wait out the war at home, spitfire Malinda cuts her hair and enlists herself as "Sam," Keith's younger brother. Their tour of duty is cut short by a deliberate scheme to get themselves discharged, and they move on to become do-gooder outlaws, known throughout the Appalachians. This story is enmeshed with the elaborately reimagined life of historical figure Zebulon Baird Vance: his early success in law and party politics, his time in Congress, his stint as commander of North Carolina troops, and his election (and subsequent re-election) as governor of North Carolina during the Civil War. Running parallel to these story lines is a dilemma plaguing present-day, Civil War re-enactment actors camped out in the Appalachians. As they restage a violent piece of Southern history, ghosts of Civil War soldiers begin appearing at their campsites and also to area residents. It's up to locals Rattler and Nora Bonesteel, both possessing the gift of "sight," to quell the ghosts' hostilities. McCrumb writes high-spirited historical fiction, her lush, dense narratives shored up by thorough research and convincing period detail. Her latest is another harmonious, folksy blend of history and backwoods lore. - Publishers Weekly

10 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I reduced my Verizon quota yesterday to make up for the overage the day before. Did no route map building but did make good progress adding camp markers to the 2008 Quest Total Trip map for the second month. I finished that today and will now go back to building route maps. I know that the next 10 will be difficult because they are routes through the New England states.

The other thing that I have managed to do, when not writing emails about the domain transfer, is get current with my Monthly Blog List reading. I have purged a lot and transfer others to the Daily List so it does not take me nearly as much time as it once did. One of the blogs on the list was a bicycling trip that reached its conclusion but there were links to prior trips that I have started to read so it will not be deleted just yet.

I also did my three cups of coffee housecleaning routine this morning. My usual toilet cleaning (but, included the removal of the seat this time) and washing floors in the bath and kitchen. Plus, the vacuuming of approximately 30 sq ft of carpet in the living room. HA

The best article that I have read about the Triple Crown winner was The Horse and The Horse’s Ass by Monty Pelerin. I have copied only a couple paragraphs to give you an idea of why I enjoyed it.

American Pharoah’s greatest achievement was not winning the Triple Crown. It was in reminding us what success feels like again. Despite what we are told by most of our media and politicians, America is starved for success and greatness. American Pharoah demonstrated both of these missing qualities. The horse did what the Horse’s Ass tried to convince us could no longer be.
A simple race horse reminded us of the drive for excellence that our elected horse’s ass has done his best to extinguish. American Pharoah, doing what he was born to do, showed more competence, ability and perseverance than most of our politicians. Perhaps this one simple event will be seen as a turning point where Americans rise up and say “No Mas!” A real horse could not be a worse president than the wrong end of a horse that sits in the White House today.

It was the gaffe so good, he made it twice. Apparently, the president does not see his shamelessly lackadaisical approach to conducting the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as a failure of which his administration should be ashamed...The president’s admission in August, exactly 20 days after the start of renewed airstrikes in Iraq targeting ISIS, that “we don’t have a strategy yet” was met with shocked gasps and myriad disapproving opinion pieces... Today, exactly 10 months after the beginning of new coalition combat operations over Iraq, the president said that he still has no clear vision for victory in the war against ISIS. “We don’t yet have a complete strategy,” Obama said at a press conference at the G-7 gathering in Germany, “because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place. And so the details of that are not yet worked out.”
Obama appears content to do his best to contain ISIS insofar as it is possible and let the next president make the inevitable case that Western forces must again return to Iraq before the nascent caliphate can export terrorism abroad. In this way, Obama does have a strategy that he has applied to fighting ISIS in Iraq. It is not, however, a strategy designed to achieve a victory.

11 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

For the past month my Dometic Porcelain Toilet has leaked water from the bowl. Not always but often enough that I knew something was not right. I thought a good cleaning yesterday would fix the problem but it did not.

A Google Search revealed that I did not have the only toilet that suffered the affliction. There was also a suggested fix for it. I should press the rubber gasket firmly in place then pour a pan of hot water into the bowl and let it sit until cool. That seems to have worked, I'll know better as the days pass but so far so good. Now if I could just fix the slow draining sink.

Alas, the homemakers work is never done. It was laundry day again. Then on top of that I needed to finish up the housecleaning chores. Wiped down the dash and gave the instrument panel some extra care. My lick and a promise cleaning in the past have left it so streaked that much of the time I could not read the trip odometer.

I probably used up over 100GB so far trying to draw a route that follows the Blue Ridge Parkway between Ashville, NC and Roanoke, VA. Haven't got it done yet and had to pull the plug on Verizon today because of an over quote warning. I'll be a little over after I do this posting and will cut the quota back for tomorrow.

What Adam Smith has to say about the taxes to pay for public roads has not changed over the years. The roads in the United States were maintained by state and local taxes for the most part until the Department of Transportation was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967.

This came about on the heels of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (commonly known as the Interstate). The system named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed its formation and was the first federal roads program of such magnitude. Now virtually no roads are built without federal funding.

...were called the duties of passage, and which seem to have been originally established for the same purpose as our turnpike tolls, or the tolls upon our canals and navigable rivers, for the maintenance of the road or of the navigation. Those duties, when applied to such purposes, are most properly imposed according to the bulk or weight of the goods. As they were originally local and provincial duties, applicable to local and provincial purposes, the administration of them was, in most cases, entrusted to the particular town, parish, or lordship, in which they were levied; such communities being, in some way or other, supposed to be accountable for the application. The sovereign who is altogether unaccountable, has in many countries assumed to himself the administration of those duties; and though he has in most cases enhanced very much the duty, he has in many entirely neglected the application.

12 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I received another email from Melbourne IT yesterday wanting me to click on the same link as before to verify my email address. Copied it and the error message that I get when I do click the link and provided the copies to Web Hosting Hub during a Chat. They once again said that I need not verify my email address with MIT.

I saved the Chat session as an email to myself and when I went to check it I found this from MIT.

This message is to confirm that the validation process for your domain [edwardfrey.com] has been successfully completed and no further action is required.
Kind regards,
Melbourne IT Limited
Registrar of Record for [edwardfrey.com]

13 June
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

The route map to Culpepper was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I started it yesterday and finished it this morning. I then did another map that was reasonably easy considering the urban areas that I was drawing the route through. Look out New England, this map maker is on a roll.

My new blood pressure monitor was delivered on Thursday if the tracking information can be believed. That is good news, I'll find out if it is true and waiting for me when I arrive tomorrow.

I have shortened up our afternoon walks these past few days. Patches was complaining about the hot temperatures. Every day in June, except yesterday, has been over 80° and it was 79° with lots of clouds. Today we got some of the 40% chance of rain around 11:00 and we may be dodging rain showers for the rest of the day. The forecast is for 90° high temperatures here starting on Wednesday. My new camp will be 5-10 degrees cooler if the forecast can be believed.

Some thougts on taxation and national debts by Adam Smith that have withstood the test of time.

When a nation is already overburdened with taxes, nothing but the necessities of a new war, nothing but either the animosity of national vengeance, or the anxiety for national security, can induce the people to submit, with tolerable patience, to a new tax. But it ought to be remembered, that when the wisest government has exhausted all the proper subjects of taxation, it must, in cases of urgent necessity, have recourse to improper ones.
When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid. The liberation of the public revenue, if it has ever been brought about at all, has always been brought about by a bankruptcy; sometimes by an avowed one, though frequently by a pretended payment. The raising of the denomination of the coin has been the most usual expedient by which a real public bankruptcy has been disguised under the appearance of a pretended payment.

14 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

A short heavy rain for about a half hour starting at 1:30 yesterday afternoon. When it quit Patches and I went to the Park office to pay the electric bill and found that the beginning meter reading had not been taken. I settled the bill at $20.

We then walked over to Subway in the Loves Truck stop and got a tuna sub. Payed for with the Subway Gift Card that my dentist office in Sierra Vista had given me. Got back from that short potty walk a little before another rain shower would have caught us. Total measured rain was 0.36".

That was not a lot but it came hard and fast enough that I am reasonably sure that Desperado's roof leak has been fixed. I hope it has been and I'm not just wishful thinking.

We did our usual morning walk but started a little earlier so we we were on the road by 6:30. The route that I drove was the reverse of last September, 234 miles but a different breakfast stop: Juniper, Pinon Dr, NM605, NM509, Navajo Rd 9, NM197, US550, NM96, US84, NM74, NM68, Roy Rd, Gusdorf Rd & Estes Es Rd (Estes Es Rd was blocked at NM68).

Breakfast was in Cuma where Boonie met me after staying there overnight. He had the heavy rains yesterday like I did and he moved out of his boondock before getting "mudded in". We had another good visit and Patches got to say Hello to Boonie and Coffee Girl.

As I left town there were 19 CanAm Spyder motorcycles (these are a three wheel tadpole design) passed me on US550. They then all turned onto NM96 and poked along at an average speed of 40-45mph for the 35 miles that I was behind them. I stopped to take a pill and let Patches get a drink (she does not leave the cab area while we are underway). I never caught up to them again which was just as well. When motorcycles are maintaining a pace that is slower than a Class C motorhome something is not right.

My new blood pressure monitor was waiting for me here at the Park. It looks almost like my old one but talks to me and averages 3 readings taken one minute apart. The talking to me is going to get old real soon - like NOW.

The first readings that I took today had a higher diastolic number than what my old monitor has been giving me. I was a little suspect of those readings before it died. The systolic number was good considering that I took the readings not long after driving 234 miles which has always elevated my blood pressure. I don't think the 120/83 and 64 pulse will raise any VA care givers blood pressure or eyebrows. We will see what the next 13 days readings are and what they have to say.

15 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

It looked like we were going to get an afternoon monsoon thunder storm yesterday but only got the wind. Then about sundown we got a nice gentle rain that measured 0.08".

I didn't try to build any route maps yesterday. Was too tired to try and fight with Google API Maps. It was a good thing that I put it off. I had extra quota today and the first map that I wanted to build was in an urban area where I wanted to avoid Interstate highways but needed to cross a toll bridge and then take a ferry. As I suspected Google API did not consider that the shortest route and fought me.

I then started a second map which chewed up all those bytes that I had saved up from yesterday plus some. I know this map will be a best approximation because I'm going to run out of waypoints trying to force Google API Maps to follow the route that I drove. I have become hung up, for now, trying to draw the route that I took around a large metropolitan area with lots of better routes in the opinion of Google API Maps.

I have taken two more readings with my new blood pressure monitor. Both of them have recorded higher diastolic numbers than my old monitor but lower that what I got yesterday soon after I stopped driving. I will not be sending VA that first reading, it was not taken while at rest which is what they want.

I believe this is the first Richard North Patterson book that I have read. Probably selected for its bulk. I detected what the Weekly calls a "soap-operaish subplot" very early on in my reading so there was no mystery. I did enjoy the historical background and did not find that I needed to "put the real world aside and suspend disbelief". I don't think the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed significantly since the novel was written and conditions remain much as he has described them. Perhaps not great literature but I will look for more of his novels.

Bestseller Patterson's new thriller with its focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been overtaken by events (there's no mention of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 or the recent fighting across the Lebanese border), but the underlying political issues may be enough for most readers to put the real world aside and suspend disbelief. Harvard-trained attorney David Wolfe, a San Franciscan on the verge of a congressional campaign, has his plans derailed when his law school classmate (and one-time lover), Palestinian Hana Arif, asks him to defend her from charges that she led a conspiracy that assassinated dovish Israeli leader Amos Ben-Aron. Inspired by idealism and lingering passion, Wolfe jeopardizes his political future by taking the case. His suspicion that the suicide bombers who attacked Ben-Aron were aided by a security breach leads him to Israel and Lebanon. While Patterson (Conviction) attempts to portray the issues fairly, the introduction of a soap-operaish subplot undercuts his intended high purpose, and the resolution of the mystery is too predictable to surprise. - Publishers Weekly

16 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

We got an afternoon monsoon rain about 10 minutes after completing our walk yesterday. I'm going to get soaked one of these afternoons if I keep pressing my luck with Mother Nature. It rained hard for maybe 15 minutes and then a moderate, steady rain for another 15; the official total measured 0.01" but I think I got more than that. This is going to be the pattern for the next couple of months.

Patches does not like the afternoon temperatures to be over 80° so we walk when it clouds up and is cooler. To try and stay dry we are also doing shorter afternoon walks and longer morning walks while it is clear and cool. The low yesterday was 44° and this morning was 46; we both enjoy those temperatures.

I finished the route map that I started yesterday. The hard part was following my driving route around Trenton and Princeton, NJ. The rest of the route was relatively easy. I didn't start another map today. I was over quota yesterday by a bit so needed to throttle back some today.

I have quoted from Constitutional Law, Relative To Credit, Currency, And Banking (1843) by Lysandr Spooner, Chapter 1 The Unconstitutionality of all State Laws Restraining Private Banking and the Rates of Interest. Does what he say sound familiar ie "mandatory purchase of insurance from a mandated insurance exchange", compelled by the ObamaCare law?

The government, for example, may compel A to sell his farm to B, at a price fixed by the government, and compel B to buy it, and pay for it, at that price, when neither A nor B consent to the contract. Is this the country, in which a principle, morally and politically so monstrous, is to exist and be recognized as law?

17 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

I had a web page visitor yesterday from Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, which I did not know was an independent country. How or why they found my web page is unknown and I doubt that they will be back. It is these visits from people in unique places in the world that keep me checking the web page stats - certainly not for the number of views.

Another difficult route map was started which used about 100MB and I still don't have it right. Too many Interstate and US highways that Google API maps wants to put me on unless I select avoid highways. But, then I have the problem of drawing the route on a US highway that Google wants to avoid. I'll overcome, I think, but it is not going to be today.

I had neighbors on both sides of me yesterday afternoon and last night. There were 4-5 on my east side and the one on the west. All the other spaces on my west side are tent camping spaces and there was a van in one of those spaces. Today by noon everyone was gone, I'm alone again in this south-southeast row along the Park border. The neighbors certainly did not bother me, I didn't know if they were still there unless I looked to see.

I said before that I like to read the "10 thing articles" that the News sites post. Top 10 ‘bucket list’ destinations for Americans was my latest. I have been to 4 of the 10 destinations (one of them twice) and have only a slight interest in two or the remaining six that I have not visited. Neither of them is on any list much less a "bucket list" - I hate the term.

A recent survey by Travel Leaders Group, a travel agents’ network, and includes responses from 3,371 consumers throughout the U.S. named these as the top “bucket list” destinations for Americans:
10. Greece & Antarctica (tie)
9. Tahiti
8. Europe, river cruise
7. Fiji
6. Bora Bora
5. Europe, Mediterranean cruise
4. New Zealand
3. Ireland
2. Italy
1. Australia

18 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

We did our usual morning walk which is now a little over 3 miles. The shorter afternoon walks are working out well so far. We have been catching the cloud shade and finish before the rains come.

As soon as we got back to Desperado I gave Patches her breakfast and then headed for town. Went to Smith's which I prefer over Albertsons' and it is less than a mile farther.

I was able find everything that I wanted for the first time in over a month. Got some dill paste, Greek God Honey and Vanilla and some dark chocolate. Even got some fresh cherries. When I asked the produce stocker at Brooks in Milan about cherries last week he had a most puzzled look on his face, as if he had never heard of any such thing.

Stopped at Toribios South Restaurant on the way home and had their Huevos a la Mexicana with some good home fries and some homemade hot sauce like Ed Frey makes. The coffee was good but very slow in being re-filled. They also sell tamales by the dozen but only pork and chicken, no green corn nor vegetarian.

I tried to finish building the map that is causing me so many problems and failed again today. Used up a lot of bytes and am not much closer to getting it done than I was yesterday. I had to re-do a lot of the waypoints because I must allow Google API to draw on Interstates and US highways. There is no other way for me to get from here to there but I have now used up all 8 of my waypoints and have still not managed to draw the route. This is a tough one!

Another "10 things" 10 countries that hate the U.S. the most by Thomas C. Frohlich. The Global Leadership Project report in its entirety can be found by selecting Report which shows the findings for current and past years by region and country. Interesting and maybe surprising!

To determine the countries that dislike America most, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the percentage of people who disapproved of the U.S. leadership in 135 countries from The U.S.-Global Leadership Project, a partnership between Gallup and the Meridian International Center...these are the 10 countries that hate America most
10. Slovenia
9. Tajikistan
8. Austria
7. Egypt
6. Iran
5. Pakistan
4. Lebanon
3. Belarus
2. Palestinian Territories
1. Russia

19 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

This last route map was really, really messing with my mind. I went back at it again late yesterday and made it say 'Uncle'. I needed one more waypoint at the destination end of the route so I went to the origin and found where I could remove a waypoint from there. Then it was 'simply' a matter of finding just the correct placement of the waypoints to make Google API Maps happy and it drew the route.

I have the feeling that the next route will also be difficult. I went over quota by a lot yesterday so I need to cut back today and will take a rest from any more building, maybe even take tomorrow off.

The shooting in Charleston, SC is the News item of the day of course. It fits the Ministry of Propaganda's Narrative and offers a podium upon which President Obama can make fine sounding pronouncements such as:

But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.

But government functionaries, secure in the enjoyment of warm nests, large salaries, official honors and power, and presidential smiles - all of which they are sure of so long as they are the partisans of the President - feel few quickening impulses to labor, and are altogether too independent and dignified personages to move at the speed that commercial interests require. They take office to enjoy its honors and emoluments, not to get their living by the sweat of their brows. They are too well satisfied with their own conditions, to trouble their heads with plans for improving the accustomed modes of doing the business of their departments - too wise in their own estimation or too jealous of their assumed superiority, to adopt the suggestions of others, too cowardly to innovate and too selfish to part with any of their power, or reform the abuses on which they thrive. The consequence, as we now see, that when a cumbrous, clumsy, expensive and dilatory government system is once established, it is nearly impossible to modify or materially improve it.

20 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

I asked VA to give me a prescription for fish oil which they said I should continue to take. They did so and when issuing a prescription they always automatically send me the first fill. I received a notice from my UPS Store that a package had arrived so I had them forward everything that was in my box.

Among the junk was a letter from AZ DMV that they had no evidence of insurance from my insurer. To make a long story short my insurance agent still had me insured in NV. The letter from AZ DMV claimed that they would suspend my registration/license plate if they did not receive evidence within 15 days - the letter was dated 5/11/15.

My insurance agent was happy to write me an AZ policy and automatically send AZ DMV evidence of same. All I had to do is cancel the old policy, pay for the new policy and wait for a check refund to be mailed (with forwarding I'll probably get it in 3 months). He was real sorry that AZ had probably suspended my registration/license plate.

I guess as long as I'm not in the state of AZ I'll probably be alright unless I'm involved in an accident somewhere and they check to see if the registration/plates are current. From what I have with me everything would say that they are but if they check with AZ DMV it could be a problem. Maybe, the new policy will lift the suspension? More than likely the state of AZ will stick me with a reactivation fee although I have not yet received a letter of suspension.

My agent was not finished with me however. He emailed me a list of requirements to cancel the NV policy. Had to do it twice, I couldn't open the first attachment to read it. The only lucky thing to come in all this aggravation was I had a UPS Store within walking distance.

The Internet claimed that they did not open until the middle of the day, 9:00 am but the sign on the door said 9:30 am. A woman showed up at 9:30 inquired if she could help me, opened the door and then locked it again behind her. Another potential customer and I got to chat for about 5 minutes about Patches before the door was re-opened.

I wrote down the required cancellation information, affixed my signature (you can buy a policy without any signature but cancellation requires one) and Faxed it to the agent. I'm sure there are some more hoops to jump through, I just don't know what they are yet or who is going to be telling me when to jump and how high.

Doing nothing else today. Worried about the AZ DMV and insurance and can not concentrate on anything.

21 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

Patches and I did a new route this morning which took us past the Taos Roc Pit Disc Golf Course. The next time we go out that way I'm going to try and walk the holes. There are 18 holes in the 6,293ft course than winds around and through an old gravel pit most likely dug out for road fill.

I am still upset about the AZ DMV - Insurance issue but feel somewhat better today. I know that part of the problem was caused by my not paying attention to what the insurance agency was doing. Perhaps the good thing to come out of this has been it made me aware of my complacency and made me look at my insurance situation.

I think the agency has had me insured by more expensive carriers than need be based on a Progressive quote that I got online yesterday. I also submitted a request for a quote to GIEGO yesterday which will come back as an email in a day or two.

So I may be changing insurance companies again before year end, but more importantly I'll be changing agents. "Insurance companies don't sell insurance, they sell peace of mind. Once that's gone, you don't have a product worth anything."

I'm sure I selected this book in trade because it was a thick one and I liked the cover. It really is not my kind of book although the historical background was of interest to me. The family saga did very little for me. The review that I copied was written by a woman and this is what I would call a 'chick book'. However, there were other women that gave it very poor reviews, even worse than what I would have said. I recommend it for women and it was not so bad that I would not read another book by this author but I will not seek her out.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. My mother gave me a copy when I was a teenager and I stayed up late many nights reading under the covers long after I should have been asleep. It is a sweeping family saga full of characters you care about, and whom you will miss when you put this book back on the shelf. Anna, Paul and Joseph are real people with real flaws, a refreshing change from the perfect protagonists that Danielle Steele is famous for (and who happen to bug the heck out of me). A period novel rich in historical detail, reading it made me feel transported back a few decades and yet it never lost sight of the struggles and triumphs of the main characters; the historical details never overwhelmed them. This book was my introduction to Belva Plain, and I went on to read the two sequels to Evergreen (also fabulous) as well as nearly all of her other books. She is a compelling author and I've been hooked on her stories for years! - Good Reads Customer Review

Trump for President? by Paul Craig Roberts does not endorse Trump but does present a good argument on his behalf. Or, as he says in his closing "how deplorable our situation is".

Trump might be our best candidate to date. By all accounts, he is very rich. Thus, he doesn’t need the office in order to become rich by selling out America to interest groups.
By all accounts, Trump has a healthy ego. Thus, he could be capable of standing up to the powerful interest groups that generally determine the governance of the American serfs.
An important question is: can a really rich person find and be comfortable with peers who are not themselves really rich? If not, then Trump is not our man. But if Trump wants to save our country, he has the money and the ego, and he can find enough people to help him.
This opportunity doesn’t mean that it will be seized or that it would pan out. If Trump is our best choice, imagine how deplorable our situation is.

22 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

It has been hot and dry for the past 4 days with a couple more in the forecast. It was over 90° yesterday with a forecast of even hotter today. Thunderstorms being predicted to start on Wednesday with slightly cooler high temperatures.

I started another route map yesterday and as I thought, it was difficult. I finished it this morning but had to draw it as an approximation because Google API Maps would not draw the route on a RI highway that I drove but Google avoids when 'avoid highways' is selected. I did not have enough waypoints that I could use to force it, needed the 8 available to draw the rest of the route.

I think the routes will be easier to draw from this point. I'll be getting out of heavily urbanized areas and start back toward the west where the map drawing is simplier.

Our morning walk was to Taos Java. This is where we stopped last Monday for a latte and I did that again. We took a slightly different route getting there and returning so that will give us two routes for Monday and a coffee stop for me.

Hillary Clinton tried to score some political points in this quote from her speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors 83rd Annual Meeting in San Francisco on 20 June 2015. The problem with what she said it that she lives in Chappaqua, NY where there are exactly 28 African-Americans/Blacks/Negros of the 1,436 people that also live there.

Was Hillary trying to replicate an Obama speech? This one is not going to do for her what it did for him - people now know that she is just speaking "words, just words".

We must address these issues as a nation, and we must also address them as individuals. Cruel jokes can’t go unchallenged, offhand comments about not wanting ‘those people’ in the neighborhood can’t be ignored, and news reports about poverty and crime and discrimination can’t just evoke our sympathy - even empathy - they must also spur us to action and prompt us to question our own assumptions and privilege.

23 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

I have been staying cool but only because my A/C has been running from about 9-10 in the morning until 8-9 at night. Not continuously but it cycles on and off about every 10-15 minutes to keep us at a reasonable 80°. There has been no rain at all since 0.02" fell on the 17th so the average humidity has been in the 30 and 40% range with the low down around 10 to 20%. Hot and dry with cool 50° morning low temperatures!

I built another route map today with only 5 waypoints. The placement of them was also fairly simple compared to what I have been faced with when drawing the routes while on the east coast. That is all for today but I'm moving forward with this project.

On 19 June 2015 I wrote about how President Obama responds to white on black killings but does not get energized by those that are black on black. I am not alone to note such disparity. The Ministry of Propaganda is also wont to report any and all white on black violence but not black on white.

The blog a vdare.com steps to fill this void. Hatefacts On Black Killings Of Whites includes the following paragraph.

According to the Department of Justice, in 2013 (the last year I can find data for) there were 409 homicides featuring a black offender and a white victim, versus 189 featuring a white offender and a black victim. The relevant DoJ table is here. (“White” includes Hispanics for this data.)

24 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

Soon after I posted yesterday we got some rain with a little hail mixed in with it. There was no official measurement of rain but I got enough to form a few puddles. It also cooled things down quite a bit, I had my windows open and no A/C on for the first time in about a week. The 10 day forecast now is showing some % chance of rain for every day and high temperatures moving down into the lower 80s. Much nicer forecast - hope it happens.

This morning I unplugged from electric as soon as we finished our walk and Patches got breakfast. We were headed for town again but I stopped at the Park dump station on the way out. The space that I am in is not full hook up (no sewer) but stopping at the dump station is no problem since I go past it every week.

Got into Smith's just before 7:00 and was out by 7:30. Got every thing that I wanted except cherries which were coming in later today. The produce stocker said that they sell over 40 cases a week. There was no checker open when I was ready to check out and I did not want to try using the self checkout with all the produce that I had. I have had a terrible time trying to do a self checkout with produce. I got them to call someone to check me out.

It was then breakfast time at Earlene's Public House. The menu did not suggest that Mexican food was their specialty but they did offer Enchiladas con Huevos which I love. They were good but I would consider them to be from the California School of Mexican Cooking; certainly not New Mexico or Tex-Mex.

One final stop at Taos Tack and Pet Supply to order three 24# bags of Canidae Pure Elements for Patches. I have about 1.5 bags with me now but looking where I'm going to be between now and mid October did not offer any convenient places to get her dog food.

I finished the Spooner .pdf book that I had downloaded. Most of the pamphlets that were included were subjects that did not interest me or were so dated that they no longer held my interest. I have now started reading a download of Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.

The book was published in 1946 but what he had to say has not be reputed by the passage of time. This quote is from Chapter VI Credit Diverts Production. He knew about the Housing Bubble, the Green Energy Loans and the Student Loan Bubble long before they were blown or the losses began to pile up. The point that he does not make is that the government is usually making those loans for 'social' not 'economic' reasons.

When people risk their own funds they are usually careful in their investigations to determine the adequacy of the assets pledged and the business acumen and honesty of the borrower. If the government operated by the same strict standards, there would be no good argument for its entering the field at all. Why do precisely what private agencies already do? But the government almost invariably operates by different standards. The whole argument for its entering the lending business, in fact, is that it will make loans to people who could not get them from private lenders. This is only another way of saying that the government lenders will take risks with other people's money (the taxpayers') that private lenders will not take with their own money.
The private lenders, moreover, are selected by a cruel market test. If they make bad mistakes they lose their money and have no more money to lend. It is only if they have been successful in the past that they have more money to lend in the future. Thus private lenders are rigidly selected by a process of survival of the fittest. The government lenders, on the other hand, are either those who have passed civil service examinations, and know how to answer hypothetical questions hypothetically, or they are those who can give the most plausible reasons for making loans and the most plausible explanations of why it wasn't their fault that the loans failed.

25 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

I have noticed that this weekend is loaded with events here in Taos. There is a golf tournament, a rodeo and the Taos Mud Bog. Glenn of To Simplify is wrapping up his tour in Australia with the International Glenn Miller Orchestra while the Domestic arm of the Orchestra is here in Taos today.

I got a couple more route maps built yesterday and then one this morning. All three of them were of only moderate difficulty in getting Google API Maps to cooperate and draw the route that I drove. I have 11 more maps to build and think they will be similar to these three in difficulty. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't find chayote squash very often in the markets that are available to me as I travel my annual loop. Yesterday I did see some at Smith's although I did not not notice any last week. Picked up three of them and they are going into my breakfast scrambles this week. A very welcome change.

I have very little faith in the WIFI service available in RV Parks but thought I would give the WIFI here a try yesterday evening. It was quite good, I was surprised. It was fast enough not to irritate me and stayed connected all the time I was getting caught up reading all the blogs on my Monthly list.

I have quoted below from Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt Chapter XI Who's Protected By Tariffs?. In our more progressive times what we have is dollars in the hands of oil exporting countries and 'stuff' producing countries that buy US government debt not 'stuff' produced in the US. Hazlitt did not foresee the time when a deficit trade balance would become a primary funding source for US government debt.

By buying English sweaters they furnish the English with dollars to buy American goods here. This, in fact (if I may here disregard such complications as multilateral exchange, loans, credits, gold movements, etc. which do not alter the end result) is the only way in which the British can eventually make use of these dollars. Because we have permitted the British to sell more to us, they are now able to buy more from us. They are, in fact, eventually forced to buy more from us if their dollar balances are not to remain perpetually unused.

26 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

I used the Park WIFI again yesterday with considerable success. Started preparing Will Rogers weekly articles for links in future dates. What I did was the easy part of the process, copying the text into my web page. The more difficult part of the process is the HTML formatting to make it appear readable when the link is clicked.

No measurable rain since the 17th. The forecast for today gives a 0% chance but almost every day in the 10 Day forecast still has some chance of thunderstorms but that could be very localized rain fall. A little cooler with more day highs expected to be in the low 80s rather than mid to upper 80s and mornings still in the low 50s.

Built one more route map this morning. I had enough of my quota remaining that I could have built one more but was just not in the mood today. I may do some more work on the Will Rogers weekly articles but then again I may just join Patches on the couch with my book.

There was a timely release of the study cited in this New York Times article Homegrown Extremists Tied to Deadlier Toll Than Jihadists in U.S. Since 9/11. I have the suspicion that its release was awaiting another non-jihadist attack. The 48 people killed includes the most recent 9 killed in Charleston, SC; 'nearly twice' as many has more shock value than one and one half times as many.

But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, including the recent mass killing in Charleston, S.C., compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.

27 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

It was a great week for the liberal transformation of the United States. However, that is the short term view. In my not so humble opinion the transformation will, in the long term, repeat the error that Russia made when it transformed to a Communist government. I will not live long enough to see the completion of this liberal transformation nor most sadly what will then replace it.

I got two more route maps built and a good start on the third this morning. I still had some quota available but didn't feel like finishing that third one. Maybe later today, if not then tomorrow. I'll use some of that quota working on Will Rogers weekly articles later today.

Sent my first report of blood pressure readings to the VA today that I have recorded using my new monitor. I took a reading everyday for the past 14 days around 11:30am, 3pm or 5:30pm. I am very pleased with the 109/67 average for all those readings and believe that the VA staff will be. I also told them that I had averaged 4.5 miles walking at 7,200' during that 14 day reporting period. I don't know if they care but that pleased me as well.

Mark Dice is a media analyst, political activist, and author who, in an entertaining and educational way, gets people to question our celebrity obsessed culture, and the role the mainstream media and elite secret societies play in shaping our lives. He also has a YouTube channel where he has posted some man on the street interviews where he:
1) Gets people to sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment and eliminate the freedom of speech.
2) Offers people a free gold coin worth $1,000 if they know generally how much gold is worth.
3) Gets people to sign a petition to increase inflation.

His most recent effort was to sell a 10oz silver bar for $10. What he proved, once again, was that Americans have absolutely no idea about the value of precious metals. Confirming the national new normal, dumbing-down-ness that was similarly proved by MRCTV of Reston, VA.

They attended the graduation ceremony for Centreville High School in Northern Virginia and then interviewed some of the graduates and asked this question. "What year did the United States declare its independence from Great Britain?" The answers that many of them gave us were off by centuries (Video).

28 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

There are a couple of things about my new blood pressure monitor that I do not like.

The first is the 'talking' feature. I see some value in the announced pressure readings. I see no value in the instructions on how to take a reading - EVERY TIME a reading is started. I turned that feature off.

Second, the memory holds 90 readings. Who in there infinite wisdom decided that was the 'right' number to keep in memory? The other thing that I don't know is what happens when reading 91 is taken? But the worse thing is I can not find any way to clear the memory. I don't want my past 90 readings average. I want to start over every 14 or 28 days or every 1,2,3 months. I have sent a Comment to the company asking how to clear and expressing my dislikes.

"Jacobin", I have not discovered a better one word description for President Obama, the Democratic Party and the RINO fellow travelers than this one as the French define it.
In modern American politics, the term Jacobin is often used to describe extremists of any party who demand ideological purity.
In Britain the term is sometimes also used as a pejorative for radical, left-wing revolutionary politics, especially when it exhibits dogmatism and violent repression.
However, in France (home of the term), Jacobin now generally indicates a supporter of a centralized republican state and strong central government powers and/or supporters of extensive government intervention to transform society.

Russia’s Right Turn by William S. Lind was written before its time. What he says in the article may be coming to pass and he saw it before other American Conservatives. There is no place for them now in the United States, so where are they going to turn?

The world has turned upside down. America, condemning and even attacking other countries to push “democracy” and Jacobinical definitions of human rights, is becoming the leader of the international Left. Russia is reasserting her historic role as leader of the international Right. This is a reversal of historic importance. American foreign policy should be based on America’s interests, not on affinity for any foreign power. But putting America first does not require being hostile to Russia or anyone else. On the contrary: American conservatives should welcome the resurgence of a conservative Russia.

29 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

As I was doing the 'linner' dishes yesterday afternoon I noticed a drop in water pressure and knew that it was time to take on some fresh water. The fresh water idiot light had been showing red for a couple of days.

When I went out to do that chore it was sprinkling and looked like our walk was going to get rained out. When it came time to go walk it still looked like we could get wet but we went for it and stayed dry. There was a lot of rain in the mountains all around Taos but I don't think the low lands got any of it.

We did get some around sun down but not a lot. The official measurement was 0.02" which may have been even more than I received.

Over the last two days I have built a couple more route maps and have crossed over to the west side of the Mississippi. That is where the route maps are easier to build or at least that has been my experience IF the route stays out of major cities.

Democrats claim that Thomas Jefferson founded their party in 1792 but he founded the Jeffersonian Republicans along with James Madison in that year. It is the Democratic-Republican Party name that is used primarily by modern political scientists for that first "Republican Party" (as it called itself at the time). I think the Democratic-Republican Party name should be brought back with Clinton - Bush on the ticket against all comers in 2016.

This quote is from Economics In One Lesson Chapter XXII The Mirage Of Inflation. It is in this same Chapter that he discusses "The most obvious and yet the oldest and most stubborn error on which the appeal of inflation rests is that of confusing "money" with wealth. Inflation is the opium of the people". Not religion as Marx has been quoted.

True, inflation may sometimes correct them; but it is a heady and dangerous method. It makes its corrections not openly and honestly, but by the use of illusion. It is like getting people up an hour earlier only by making them believe that it is eight o'clock when it is really seven. It is perhaps no mere coincidence that a world which has to resort to the deception of turning all its clocks ahead an hour in order to accomplish this result should be a world that has to resort to inflation to accomplish an analogous result in the economic sphere.

30 June
Taos Valley RV Park
Toas, NM

Today was shopping day. That meant laying in victuals from Smith's to last me for another week. The main course for 'linner' will be cod baked in mushroom soup with fresh dill then broccoli florets added during the last 10 minutes. It has been so good in the past - I'm looking forward to it.

Breakfast was at Toribios South Restaurant again. There I ordered off menu with a request for chicken tamales with two eggs on top and home fries. The coffee was good although slow in coming but the home fries where not as good at those with the first meal that I had at Toribios. The tamales were not so good that I'm going to buy a dozen. I may try their pork tamales with eggs the next time I stop.

I then made my annual visit (I do most of my 'stuff' shopping online) to the China Outlet Store or the RVers Valhalla, more commonly called WalMart. My lounging around pants fell apart this past week and I also needed sheets and pillow cases. The pants that I settled on were made in Bangladesh and the sheets are from Pakistan so maybe I need to reconsider my China Outlet Store name.

The last stop was at Taos Tack & Pet Feed where I was to pick up 3 bags of Canidae Pure Elements. Canidae could not read the FAX order so they sent only one bag. I'll have to make a separate trip next week to get the other two bags - I hope.

More from Economics In One Lesson this time from Chapter XXIII The Assault On Savings. If Hazlitt knew this in 1946 when he wrote it why does the Federal Reserve think it is not true now? What has changed?

There are some people that think what he said remains true but they are not in positions of power. Those that are in power also know that what he said is true but if they reverse the current policy then the economy goes in the tank and they are removed from power. So it is extend and pretend until they leave the position of power with as much "money/wealth" as they can accumulate.

This is the last from Hazlitt for now; a timely quote considering what happened in the financial markets yesterday. I have started to read a collection of essays published in 1918 that were written by William Graham Sumner in the last quarter of the 1800s. You will be hearing from him soon.

The effect of keeping interest rates artificially low, in fact, is eventually the same as that of keeping any other price below the natural market. It increases demand and reduces supply. It increases the demand for capital and reduces the supply of real capital. It brings about a scarcity. It creates economic distortions. It is true, no doubt, that an artificial reduction in the interest rate encourages increased borrowing. It tends, in fact, to encourage highly speculative ventures that cannot continue except under the artificial conditions that gave them birth. On the supply side, the artificial reduction of interest rates discourages normal thrift and saving. It brings about a comparative shortage of real capital.
The money rate can, indeed, be kept artificially low only by continuous new injections of currency or bank credit in place of real savings. This can create the illusion of more capital just as the addition of water can create the illusion of more milk. But it is a policy of continuous inflation. It is obviously a process involving cumulative danger. The money rate will rise and a crisis will develop if the inflation is reversed, or merely brought to a halt, or even continued at a diminished rate. Cheap money policies, in short, eventually bring about far more violent oscillations in business than those they are designed to remedy or prevent.