Peregrinating
2016

December

1 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

It was forecast to be warmer this morning but was 20-21° while I was out there on my walk. It stayed below freezing until about 8:30 again and is warming slowly. The next 6 days are all forecast to be in the lower 30s with two of them expected to be at 31° - I think they will all be below freezing. Then there is 7 December which is forecast to be 21°, I expect it to be in the teens and hope my basement hearer is going to provide enough heat.

I'll finish reading "Man" today. Should also complete the last two Parts of "The Theory of Interest and Prices in Paper Currency". This has disappointed me only because I don't understand but about half of what I have read. I will be adding Keith Weiner to my list of blogs and maybe learn something if I keep reading what he writes.

My Daily Blog list has now become almost entirely alt-News and financial blogs. I have moved the few Travel blogs that I still read to my Monthly list. I think I'll rename that to be Travel Blogs because that is mostly what it is and I read them at various times, certainly not Monthly.

This is #22 [3³4²; 3²6²; 3.4²6] in the 3-uniform series. The next two #23 & #24 are look alikes again and I'll be drawing only one.


The Knot that I have been drawing is almost finished and has turned out very nice. This one included a couple of ellipse that I was able to find some online coding that helped me draw.

2 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

It was warmer this morning but still below freezing and at 29° it was below the forecast. There is good and bad news in the weather guessers revised forecast however. The good news is that Saturday's low has been raised to 36°. The bad news is that the chance of rain has been increased to 90% with a 70% chance has been added to Sunday. So maybe if it rains it will not freeze OR the weather guessers first prediction of snow will come to pass. I WILL be leaving my basement heater hooked up.

I read it! I continue to say that Rothbard is easier to read than Von Mises but that is not to say that this was light reading. The Customer Review that I have copied express my views fairly well especially "some of this work was a little beyond me". I will now continue to read his Power and Market with the hope that it is less theory and more 'real economy'.

Murray Rothbard was one of the most prolific writers in the libertarian tradition in the 20th century. His published work covered political theory, social theory, history, and economics. I've read most of Rothbard's books and consider Man, Economy, and State to be his greatest achievement.
As an introductory matter, Rothbard studied under Ludwig von Mises, this century's premier Austrian economist. Man, Economy, and State is a basic treatise on economics, drawing on the insights of the Austrian school. It starts with the fundamentals of human action, and then goes on to discuss prices, production, monopoly theory, money, and other matters. This work is lengthy and some parts are quite theoretical, but that shouldn't stop even the tyro in economics from reading it. Rothbard starts with "Crusoe economics," that is with the individual actor. From this, he introduces the reader to the basics of economic reasoning. Only after this foundation is constructed does Rothbard discuss more complex issues. If you want to learn to "think like an economist" this book is a great place to start. I'm no economist -- and some of this work was a little beyond me (although I like to think I could have mastered it if I had enough free time) -- but even those chapters that are the most theoretical contain numerous insights into more "practical" matters. - Customer Review at Amazon

Fred Reed has a great posting about gun control Gun Control: Hawglegs and Hawgwash with so much political incorrectness that I could not choose only one quote. Therefore, I selected this paragraph which the gun control advocates will just not 'get'. Or as Fred says in his closing. "Their outlook rests on the belief that nothing really bad can happen. Which means that if it does, they will be toast. And that, in a morbid way, will be amusing."

In a country in which the government cannot or will not enforce the laws and protect citizens–the United States comes to mind–said citizens will want to protect themselves. This is happening in Mexico. In a recent example in Mexico City (this from newspaper accounts) four robbers, armed, boarded a public bus and collected wallets and cell phones from the passengers. One passenger drew a pistol and shot all four, killing one. The other three, badly wounded, got off the bus. The passenger followed, finished them off, gave the loot back to the other passengers, and disappeared into the city. Curiously, not one of the passengers was able to describe him. Maybe they were not paying attention.

3 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

I had the Wave 6 working overtime yesterday with an expected high temperature of 53°. It was cold in Desperado for most of the day which only got up to 50. Today the forecast high is 41° so it will most likely be on ALL day. The chance of rain that was to begin last night at 8:00 was a little late but it did start before midnight. Was only a light mist when I went out for my morning walk but that did not last long and I retreated to Desperado after getting wet. Ugly, ugly weather today!

I'll not do much today except try to stay warm. Have been drawing this morning and while sitting by the window I could feel the cold coming through on my arm. Had to put on my wool capote so I could continue to sit there with part of me very warm from the efforts of the Wave 6 and part of me cold. I may even end up back in bed where I'll do my reading for the day.

Here is Panel #19 or Knot #5 with only one pseudo Knot remaining on the first page of panels at the stained glass web page. This was my second effort at drawing an ellipse and I did a much better job of it. I previously used Bezier curves and it looked good but this is much better.

4 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

It rained all day yesterday. I got wet again in the afternoon when I went out thinking that it had stopped. Didn't get very far and it started in again. This morning was a little colder than yesterday but stayed above freezing with a very welcome reasonably clear sky and some sunshine. The temperature had moved up past yesterday's high of 41° by 10:00. It is looking good until Thursday and Friday morning when the lows are expected to be in 20s.

I have started to think about travel plans for 2017 and have made some RV Park contacts. It looks like my 'planned' route will be determined by the Park(s) that respond. I sent one Park 4 emails and have had no reply - so I have written of that choice of route. Contacted one of my favorites in Silver City, NM and they are full up during the time that I wanted to stay there so that choice has been discarded.

Have sent 2 emails and filled out the RV Park web page Contact Form twice for another choice and have had no reply. I have decided that a great majority of the Parks that I select are 'hobby businesses' and not really in the RV Park space rental business. I'll give this one a few days and then try one more time. If no reply after that - another choice written off.

These two tilings are #23 & #24 which I thought were the same because the identifying number [3²6²; 3.4²6; 3.6.3.6] is the same for each and I could not see any difference. I finally did see that they are different and some of those that I have skipped over have probably been different also but I am not going back.

The current situation in the United States and in Western Europe has nothing whatsoever to do with "free" immigration. It is forced integration, plain and simple, and forced integration is the predictable outcome of democratic one-man-one-vote rule. Abolishing forced integration requires the de-democratization of society and ultimately the abolition of democracy. More specifically, the power to admit or exclude should be stripped from the hands of the central government¹⁹ and reassigned to the states, provinces, cities, towns, villages, residential districts, and ultimately to private property owners and their voluntary associations. The means to achieve this goal are decentralization and secession (both inherently undemocratic, and antimajoritarian).²⁰ One would be well on the way toward a restoration of the freedom of association and exclusion as is implied in the idea and institution of private property, and much of the social strife currently caused by forced integration would disappear, if only towns and villages could and would do what they did as a matter of course until well into the nineteenth century in Europe and the United States: to post signs regarding entrance requirements to the town, and once in town for entering specific pieces of property (no beggars, bums, or homeless, but also no Moslems, Hindus, Jews, Catholics, etc.); to expel as trespassers those who do not fulfill these requirements; and to solve the "naturalization" question somewhat along the Swiss model, where local assemblies, not the central government, determine who can and who cannot become a Swiss citizen.
¹⁹Until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1875, the regulation of immigration into the United States was considered a state, rather than a federal, matter.
²⁰See further on this chap. 5.

5 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

There was heavy fog this morning which condensed on my wool capote and beard. It was also below freezing so that condensation turned to ice by the time I finished my walk. Then it was back into Carlsbad on US285, in the fog, doing what I thought was probably 5mpg over safe conditions and traffic was blowing past me doing 70mpg or more.

First on the schedule was a dental appointment for a cleaning. The appointment was for 8:30 but the cleaning didn't get started until about 9:00. I think they did a good job but it did add some time constraints.

I was going to go for groceries at La Tienda Thriftway for the last time but time was against me and I was driving right past an Albertson's. They had Greek Gods Honey and I have my bottle of vanilla so it was worth the stop. I was going to go to Artesia next Friday or Saturday but have now decided to do my grocery stop during my travel day next Monday.

I have not found what I consider to be a 'good' local restaurant in Carlsbad. Noticed that there was a Denny's and I have always enjoyed their Santa Fe Skillet. Stopped there on my way out of town and that is what I got. Say what you will about Denny's I do like their Santa Fe.

The time problem was driven by the Lakewood Post Office that was holding a package of Arbuckles for me to pick up and they closed at noon. Before ordering I asked the woman in the Park office "Can I have a package delivered here?" She said "Yes".

Tracking said it was at the Post Office on Thursday but when I asked if it had been delivered she said "No". When I asked again on Friday she said "No". But there was a guy in the office also that said "The Post Office does not deliver here." One more example of my not asking the right question!

When I got back to my space in the Park I dumped holding tanks and filled up with fresh water. That is the first of the chores that need to be done this week. Leaving on Monday so I can sort of ease into doing them.

I really like Dilbert by Scott Adams. His latest blog posting The New CEO’s First Moves (and Trump) is a good one which I recommend. I have selected only one paragraph from the posting.

I’ll say this again because it’s important. We’re all watching closely to see if President Elect Trump has the skill to be president. And while you watch, Trump and Pence are pulling off one of the most skillfully executed new CEO plays you will ever see. Remember what I taught you in the past year: Facts don’t matter. What matters is how you feel. And when you watch Trump and Pence fight and scratch to keep jobs in this country, it changes how you will feel about them for their entire term. This is a big win for Trump/Pence disguised as a small win.

6 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

It was above freezing this morning and felt warmer than the 34°. The expected high is only forecast to be 51 which may be the leading edge of the cold front coming tomorrow, Thursday and Friday morning. Then the weekend will be warming up into the 60s.

I made up my first day 3x5 travel card last night. Decided to take the slightly longer route that will include more Interstate driving than I have done for years. the shortest route may be weather impacted and I don't want to be in snow. This move from camp to camp will take three days so I need to make up the other two 3x5 route cards in the next few days.

Nothing else on the agenda for today. I have started another tile drawing and am finishing up panel #20, maybe get that posted tomorrow.

I have been switching back and forth in reading "Power and Market" and "Democracy". Read one for a chapter and then read the other one. They are both on the same topics and "Democracy" cites "Power" frequently. This quote came from "Power" but the same point has been made repeatedly in "Democracy". The "ignorance and apathy" has begun to disappear with the full-time and part-time rulers fighting desperately to keep the trough they have been feeding from.

Who benefits from taxation? It is clear that the primary beneficiaries are those who live full-time off the proceeds, e.g., the politicians and the bureaucracy. These are the full-time rulers. It should be clear that regardless of legal forms, the bureaucrats pay no taxes; they consume taxes.³ Additional beneficiaries of government revenue are those in society subsidized by the government; these are the part-time rulers. Generally, a State cannot win the passive support of a majority unless it supplements its full-time employees, i.e., its members, with subsidized adherents. The hiring of bureaucrats and the subsidizing of others are essential in order to win active support from a large group of the populace. Once a State can cement a large group of active adherents to its cause, it can count on the ignorance and apathy of the remainder of the public to win passive adherence from a majority and to reduce any active opposition to a bare minimum.
³If a bureaucrat receives a salary of $5,000 a year and pays $1,000 in “taxes” to the government, it is quite obvious that he is simply receiving a salary of $4,000 and pays no taxes at all. The heads of the government have simply chosen a complex and misleading accounting device to make it appear that he pays taxes in the same way as any other men making the same income. The UN's arrangement, whereby all its employees are exempt from any income taxation, is far more candid.

7 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

Today marks the anniversary of what FDR claimed would be "a date which will live in infamy". It has been 75 years now and has no more importance as a date than the defeat at the Alamo or our defeat in Vietnam.

The low temperature this morning was about the same as yesterday. The expected high is forecast to be MUCH WARMER at 59° which if it comes to pass will definitely be warmer than the 48° high of yesterday. I don't see it happening however. It is staying cold today and the forecast high for tomorrow is 34°. I'm soon to be out of here - but a week late.

If it is going to be a nasty day maybe I'll make it a household chores day and get them done. I'll not be doing any of them today. Probably be on the couch with my Paperwhite reading "Power" and "Democracy" most of the day. Maybe finish the tile drawing that I started yesterday and get started on panel #21.

This is Panel #20 which I think is much like Panel #6 & #7. That is the way that I drew it anyway, by layering the shapes. I then used the same coloring scheme that I used on those earlier panels. It was an easy panel to draw but #21 does not look like it will be.

8 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

I checked the weather forecast yesterday around 2:00 and saw that the gurus had changed their forecast high to 51° from the 59 that I did not believe. When I saw that I didn't believe it either since the high for the day had been 47 at 9:30 then it got colder again.

I was ready for the predicted 24° this morning. I had on a flannel shirt, my wool shirt/jacket (good to 40) plus my wool capote (good to the 20s) with my wool cap, a scarf and gloves to complete the ensemble. For good measure I also wore my thermal under ware to keep my legs warm. Didn't need it all - the low was 30°.

The expected high for today is 34 with a low tomorrow morning forecast to be 21. I'll be dressed the same tomorrow just in case the gurus get it right. I think they are going to be close with their high prediction for today; it was still below freezing at 10:00. The Wave 6 will be working overtime for sure. I had it on most of yesterday.

I did get the bathroom cleaned plus the bathroom and kitchen floor washed. It was cold working on the floor which doesn't warm up much with just the Wave 6. Maybe get the carpet in the living room vacuumed later today. The cab can wait until tomorrow or Saturday.

I'll post the latest tile drawing tomorrow. Finishing it up and have made a start on panel #21. I won't even say a good start, just a start. Making good progress on "Power" and "Democracy", I may even finish one or the other before I leave here. Then again maybe not. It is not important when I finish either of them but it will seem like an accomplishment.

I am really late to the party. This guy has 12,446 quotes posted at SearchQuote.com. "If you think the things I say out loud are bad, you should hear the things that I keep to myself!!" - Nishan Panwar

9 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

The high temperature yesterday was 35° but the forecasters think it will be MUCH WARMER today at 47. I'm not so sure. This morning the low was almost identical to yesterday but there was more wind so the wind chill was down to 20°. The Wave 6 was on all day yesterday and could be on all day again today with it still below freezing at 10:00 as it was yesterday.

Looking forward to my next camp where the expected high on Wednesday, my arrival day, is 76° with an low of 50° compared to the 61/23 that they will be having here. Fortunately none of my water pipes have frozen so the basement heater is doing well, it had to have been on for over 24 hours now and could stay on for another 24.

The weather is all that is happening here. I am cold and ready to go where it is warm or al least warmer!

This is #25 [3⁴6; 3³4²; 3.4²6] in the 3-uniform series. It looks somewhat like #22 and I was able use some of the coding from that drawing. The placement of the drawing to create the tiling was very easy for this one.

10 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

Yesterday I used all the condensation inside on the cab windows to wash them. Within an hour they were fogged up again with condensation that happens when they are cold and I'm running the Wave 6. I cleared off the condensation near my chair and the heater and it did not come back so that window was warmer.

The low this morning was 25° but it happened in the early hours and had warmed up to 30 by the time I went out for my walk. I was overdressed this morning, could have left off the thermal bottoms and the wool shirt/jacket. However, there was heavy fog again and I had ice crystals in my beard again.

It was warmer yesterday at 42° than the previous 35 but short of the expected 47. The guess for today is again MUCH WARMER with an expected 65 and 70 tomorrow - I don't believe it, these are Chamber of Commerce predictions. It was still freezing at 9:30 though the fog had lifted some we were not getting any sunshine.

I knew that panel #21 was going to be a challenge just by looking at it. There are three ellipse inside/stacked on each other which would not be that difficult but these are at an ANGLE. I learned how to draw them horizontal and vertical but not at an ANGLE. I tried Bezier curves both quadratic and cubic by themselves and combined as well as combined with circles and failed. Finally, I found a web site that explained how the formula that I used before could be changed to provide rotation.

I got them drawn yesterday! Now I have a lot more Bezier curve lines to be drawn and a dozen 'teardrop' shapes that need to be placed along the curved lines. I thought I know how to do the teardrops but have not found a quick and easy way to do them yet. This is going to take some time. HA

11 December
The Ranch SKP RV Park
Lakewood, NM

We did get that Chamber of Commerce weather yesterday that was predicted. The high was 67° and this morning the low was 50. So what do I have to complain about - the wind. It started blowing at about 4:00 this morning at 20 mph with gusts of 30mph which has blown in some clouds again.

I commented about Roswell, Artesia and Carlsbad reminding me of West Texas. I went back and looked at what I said about Hondo and Del Rio, TX and I had the same sorry weather there during my November to January stay. So the culture and the weather here is the western edge of West Texas whereas I was on the eastern edge before. Don't like either of them although the humidity is better here.

The wind is forecast to die down later today and then be calm tomorrow. I'll be driving into some predicted winds as I approach my overnight camp tomorrow but with any luck I get there before they pick up to 15mpg which if true will not be too bad.

Finished the second book that was included in the Rothbard download. Chapter 12 of Man, Economy, and State is a summation of the chapters in Power and Market. So Power and Market by itself is the more thorough treatment of violent government intervention in the free market. "Power and Market: Government and the Economy is a 1970 book by Murray Rothbard in which he analyzes the negative effects of the various kinds of government intervention, and argues that the State is neither necessary nor useful. It was originally part of his 1962 book Man, Economy, and State but was censored by the publisher, who felt it was too radical for publication and later published under the above title. It was reunited with the 4th edition of Man, Economy, and State in 2004 in the volume sub-titled "The Scholar's Edition" from the Ludwig von Mises Institute." - Wikipedia

I am well on the way to finishing "Democracy" but not by the time I leave here on Monday. With three travel days I may have it read by the time I get to my next camp.

As I said yesterday, drawing panel #21 is a slow process. The dozen 'teardrop' shapes are all at different angles so I can not see any way to make the drawing easy. I got 6 of them drawn yesterday and may get the other 6 done today or maybe not - they are difficult.

Jack & Jill Went Down the Hill by Uncola is not done in rhyme but is a well done story. I recommend it although it is rather dark.

12 December
LOW-HI RV Ranch
Deming, NM

Today was a longer day than I like when getting from one place to another. I needed to stop in Carlsbad and fill up with gas which added some time. Then I was going to stop in White City, NM for breakfast. I did stop but only to go into the one business that was open and ask about the restaurant. It is closed on Monday & Tuesday

It was then another 80 miles before I came upon an oasis in Cornudas, TX. It has a BIG sign on the roof that claims it is Mary's Café but the menu and my receipt says it is the Cornudas Café. It is in the middle of nowhere and looks all the other abandoned places along the road between Carlsbad and El Paso. But I got a very good omelet with green chile, home fried potato rings and a bottomless cup of coffee.

Stopped at Pepper's market in Deming to do my weekly grocery shopping. That took a little longer than usual because it was a new store although I had been in it some years ago.

Then arrived at my overnight camp to check in and had a woman in front of me that was taking forever. She was finally on her way and I was afraid that my check in was going to take just as long. No fear. My check-in went slick and it took only 20 minutes for the two of us.

The route today was 290 miles via: County 31A, County 31, US285, NM524/Standpipe Rd, NM672/Hidalgo, Boyd Dr, US180/US62, TX375, I-10 (~89miles), E. Pine St, NM11 & O'Kelley Rd.

I finished "Democracy" last night and have a couple of passages from it. These quotes express the theme of the book and support Rothbard's ideas that democracy needs to be replaced. The chances of a 'new non-government' coming about are slim to none until the US goes the way of the Soviet Union. If/when that happens then there could be 6-12 new countries where the US once was and perhaps one or more of them will adopt their ideas or maybe not.

In light of these considerations—and in contrast to common wisdom on the matter—one reaches the same conclusion regarding the ultimate "success" of the American revolution as H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy (New York: Vintage Books, 1982): Political revolutions do not often accomplish anything of genuine value; their one undoubted effect is simply to throw out one gang of thieves and put in another.... Even the American colonies gained little by their revolt in 1776. For twenty-five years after the Revolution they were in far worse condition as free states than they would have been as colonies. Their government was more expensive, more inefficient, more dishonest, and more tyrannical. It was only the gradual material progress of the country that saved them from starvation and collapse, and that material progress was due, not to the virtues of their new government, but to the lavishness of nature. Under the British hoof they would have got on as well, and probably a great deal better.

In sum, then, Rothbard has commented on this analysis, the Constitution has proved to be an instrument for ratifying the expansion of State power rather than the opposite. As Calhoun saw, any written limits that leave it to government to interpret its own powers are bound to be interpreted as sanctions for expanding and not binding those powers. In a profound sense, the idea of binding down power with the chains of a written constitution has proved to be a noble experiment that failed. The idea of a strictly limited government has proved to be utopian; some other, more radical means must be found to prevent the growth of the aggressive State.

13 December
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

This morning started off a little different. There was a dead jack rabbit in the RV space next to mine, maybe 15' from my side door. It was not only dead but was missing one entire rear leg. I'm thinking it was coyote's work but neither my traveling companion nor myself woke up.

Then the morning became déjà vu all over again. Went to the gas station that I remembered going to before and it was out of business. A restaurant which is near by and where I was going to have breakfast was still closed at 7:00. Then I went past my second choice and had to turn around. A decent breakfast at Restaurante El Mirador which I had been to before and recommend.

It got better after that. I was in Sierra Vista just a few minutes after noon. Took the shortest route from Douglas which is to go through Bisbee and through the tunnel. I had not been that way in many, many years, maybe 30-40. I stopped at my UPS Store and picked up 3 packages and all my 'held' mail. Then went to my dentist office and got an appointment for April. Did the same thing for an eye exam in February. Then to on to my "domicile" RV Park where I got a 3 month reservation at a great price. That will not start today - in February.

Didn't add too many miles that I am not including in the route description; drove a total of 247 miles on: O'Kelley Rd, NM11, W. Pine St, E Pine St, NM11, NM9, NM80/AZ80, AZ90 & AZ82.

This book contains very little that can not be found in "Human Action" by Mises or "Man & Power" by Rothbard. In fact Hoppe quotes liberally from those two authors and is very much an evangelist for Rothbard's beliefs. If you read those three books there is not much that will be gained by reading this one. However, this one is much shorter and will provide a good overview of what is to be found in the other three.
Democracy: The God That Failed is a 2001 book by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, containing a series of thirteen essays on the subject of democracy. The book "examines modern democracies in the light of various evident failures" which, in Hoppe's view, include rising unemployment rates, expanding public debt, and insolvent social security systems. He attributes democracy's failures to pressure groups seeking increased government expenditures, regulations and taxation and a lack of counter-measures to them. He discusses as solutions secession, "shifting of control over the nationalised wealth from a larger, central government to a smaller, regional one" and "complete freedom of contract, occupation, trade and migration introduced". It concludes that democracy is the primary cause of the decivilization sweeping the world since World War I, and that it must be delegitimized. - Wikipedia

14 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

Today was not as long driving but was still a longer day than I like and I could feel the soreness from driving these multiple days. I added a lot of extra time going into Tucson to have a face-to-face meeting with my new broker.

Before getting to his office I stopped at Jerry Bob's Family Restaurant in Rita Ranch. If you do not know how to get there it is a problem. Rita Ranch is a collection of businesses that have been grouped together in what the architect thought was clever but is a maze if you do not know where you are going. The Spinach Omelet that I had was nothing special; although I may stop again the chances are that I will not.

From there to my brokers office was across part of Tucson through heavy traffic. Had to detour once because of a wreck but did arrive at his office 5 minutes before I said that I would be there. We visited and I took care of a couple pieces of business and was back into the Tucson traffic by 9:30. Stopped for gas and the got out of town.

The total for today was 196 miles and I'm 733 miles from the cold of Lakewood. Got here using this route today: AZ82, AZ83, Sahuarita Rd, Houghton Rd, Broadway, Craycroft, 22nd St, Mission Rd & Ajo Way/AZ86.

I was in my space and set up before 1:00 Arizona Time which now matches Mountain Standard Time since Daylight Savings has switched back to 'real' time. The reservation that I made a little over a month ago was not made by the old Manager. The new Manager has been on the job for 3 weeks now and seems to know what she is doing.

The old and the new Managers are members of the Tohono O'odham Nation (formerly the Papago) which own this RV Park and a small Casino. It is hard to get tribal members that have any business experience and even harder to get non-tribal people to live here year around. Winter - sure; summer - I don't think so!

When I downloaded "Democracy" I was also looking for more free books by H. L. Mencken. Came across a couple and read this little gem yesterday. Had a lot of trouble finding a cover picture, finally found this one at Amazon.fr (France). As the Customer Reviews says the author is "Owen Hatteras" but the reality is Nathan wrote about Mencken and Mencken wrote about Nathan. This was written during the time (1914–1924) that they were co-editors of The Smart Set, an American literary magazine. It is written in a stream of consciousness style, witty and with tongue in cheek.

Quite possibly the best opening line I've read opens this work: "Biographies always fail, like psychology, because they mistake complexity for illumination." The purported author (one "Owen Hatteras") of this joint "biography" of H. L. Mencken and his co-editor, George Jean Nathan, claims that real knowledge of a person accumulates over years of the simple facts of that person's day-to-day life. How does he like his eggs? How long can he read a first-class novel before napping? What sort of underwear does he favor? We need these simple facts, claims Hatteras, and they can be a basis for a new sort of biography, which he happily lays out for these two distinguished men. This, of course, is vintage Mencken, observing and fabricating in one of his lesser known tracts. A mere 42 pages long, it was enormously entertaining and I loved it. - Amazon Customer Review

15 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

Yesterday when I went for my afternoon walk it was 80° cooling down to 78 by the time I finished. This morning the low was 54° when I started my walk but had warmed up to 59 by the time I finished. The forecast high today is 81 with a low tomorrow morning of 58. How sweet it is! But not for long, Saturday is expected to be 57 with a low Sunday morning at freezing then the rest of the 10 Day forecast is in the usual 60s and 40s.

Verizon was VERY slow yesterday afternoon. It took me a long time to get my posting done. After struggling with it I went to the Park office to get their WIFI password but didn't have a lot of hope for it either. There was a fellow sitting outside the office with his laptop so I assumed that the WIFI signal was rather poor. However, at my space it is slow but I think it was faster than Verizon. Between the two of them I think I will be frustrated but will have a connection to the Internet albeit slow.

I have started reading the second Mencken book that I downloaded many months ago along with "Pistols". This is the first in a series of six with them all having the title "Prejudices:" first series, second series etc. I'm not sure if I will be able to find a download all six but did get the second series last night.

This first series is all about book/author criticism. He really takes it to H. G. Wells. I have selected a couple of his choice comments. He loved Well's early novels, not his sci-fi so much, but starting around the time of WWI everything that Wells wrote gets a big thumbs down.

Since then the decline of Wells has been as steady as his rise was rapid. Call the roll of his books, and you will discern a progressive and unmistakable falling off. Into "The Passionate Friends" there crept the first downright dullness. By this time his readers had become familiar with his machinery and his materials—his elbowing suffragettes, his tea-swilling London uplifters, his smattering of quasi-science, his intellectualized adulteries, his Thackerayan asides, his text-book paragraphs, his journalistic raciness— and all these things had thus begun to lose the blush of their first charm. To help them out he heaved in larger and larger doses of theory—often diverting enough, and sometimes even persuasive, but in the long run a poor substitute for the proper ingredients of character, situation and human passion.

What has slowly crippled him and perhaps disposed of him is his gradual acceptance of the theory, corrupting to the artist and scarcely less so to the man, that he is one of the Great Thinkers of his era, charged with a pregnant Message to the Younger Generation—that his ideas, rammed into enough skulls, will Save the Empire, not only from the satanic Nietzscheism of the Hindenburgs and post-Hinden-burgs, but also from all those inner Weaknesses that taint and flabbergast its vitals, as the tapeworm with nineteen heads devoured Atharippus of Macedon. In brief, he suffers from a messianic delusion—and once a man begins to suffer from a messianic delusion his days as a serious artist are ended.

16 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

Surprise, we got some rain last night. Woke me up but did not rain very hard nor for very long. The weather underground station that I am getting reports from is in Ajo and it claims there was 0.02" fall. The average annual rain for Ajo is 6.86" and with that last night the total for 2016 is 6.16" so there needs to be a bigger storm than what is in the 10 Day forecast to reach that average.

To understand how much it rains here compare it to Sacramento, CA where they have been crying drought for the past couple of years and they average 18.51" per year. However, a drought year is any year that has less than the average so you can expect to have a drought half of the time and a surplus the other half.

I stayed on pavement and gravel for my morning walk. Did a couple of laps around the Park and the Casino parking lot which was a little less than usual. But my timing was perfect. I arrived at Olsen's IGA in Ajo 5 minutes after they opened. Got almost every thing I wanted but had to substitute for a couple of items. No Greek Gods yogurt but they did have Oikios so that was good. No hearts of Romaine but they had some chopped - not my preference but I can live with it.

Made a hasty retreat from the 'big town' and returned to Why for breakfast. This was at Granny's Kitchen which is probably where I will have breakfast the most on my shopping days. There are only two restaurants open early in the morning in Ajo-Why and I like Granny's the best.

Yesterday morning around 10:00 my neighbors young dog was outside with her and started barking (the dog, not my neighbor). This is going to be a common occurrence it seems and it does not take much to start it. I did look around to see what might have provoked it this time and saw a coyote about 50 yards in front of Desperado. Just wondering back and forth sniffing the ground then left. When I got back to the Park today he was there again.

I did some more drawing on panel #21 but the response time from Verizon and WIFI here makes it a long process. I need to code, save (which takes longer than at most camps), view what I have done (which takes longer to open), re-code and then repeat until I get it right. It is probably going to take me two or three times as long to finish here rather than at my previous camps where I had relatively fast Internet connections. I am making progress, maybe finish it today and show it tomorrow.

The only other constructive thing that I did was to dump holding tanks yesterday. I took on fresh water the day that I arrived at Quail Ridge but decided to hold off dumping although I probably could have put it off for few more days. The weather was perfect for going out there and getting it done yesterday. The high was 82°, t-shirt weather, with a low this morning of 63. Much cooler today and tomorrow morning then a couple cold mornings.

17 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

The low this morning was 47° with some wind that made it feel colder but not bad. It is warming very slowly so the expected high of 57 may be the best that it can do. That is MUCH COLDER than the past couple of days and tomorrow morning will be also. It was good while it lasted and still not bad compared to most of the country!

Mencken was not a fan of democracy and didn't have a very high opinion of the 'common man'. The quote that I have selected came from Prejudices: first series Chapter XII "The Genealogy of Etiquette". In that chapter he is reviewing Fear and Conventionality by Elsie Clews Parsons, Ph.D. and is the best part of "Prejudices" that I have read thus far.

It is this "The pressure ... of mass ideas, of the socialized intelligence, .. is too enormous to be withstood" that makes the election of The Donald all that more unbelievable. The Hill and her supporters can not accept that there were enough people willing to break with convention and vote for him.

As an aside: I downloaded this from Internet Archive, where I got "Pistols" also. I think both of them where digitized using Optical Character Recognition and the resulting text is poor, "Pistols' was bad with "Prejudices" worse.

Nay, not one of us is a free agent. Not one of us actually thinks for himself, or in any orderly and scientific manner. The pressure of environment, of mass ideas, of the socialized intelligence, improperly so called, is too enormous to be withstood. No American, no matter how sharp his critical sense, can ever get away from the notion that democracy is, in some subtle and mysterious way, more conducive to human progress and more pleasing to a just God than any of the systems of government which stand opposed to it. In the privacy of his study he may observe very clearly that it exalts the facile and specious man above the really competent man, and from this observation he may draw the conclusion that its abandonment would be desirable, but once he emerges from his academic seclusion and resumes the rubbing of noses with his fellow-men, he will begin to be tortured by a sneaking feeling thai such ideas are heretical and unmanly, and the next time the band begins to play he will thrill with the best of them—or the worst.

18 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

There was a freeze warning with the expected low to be 30-32° but it only got down to 38. The low for tomorrow morning is forecast to be 41 so my guess is that it will be near freezing. They then expect it to be back in the 60s and 40s with a chance of low 70s on a couple of days. Not bad, not bad at all considering that the good folks in the northeast and mid-west are freezing.

I am going to have the Wave 6 working for some time this morning. It is not warming up very fast. Not going to do much today other than start reading a couple new books. Finish up the tiling drawings so I can show them tomorrow and do some more on panel #22 that I have started. Do some cooking.

I finished the first of "Prejudices" and have downloaded the second and third but can not find 4,5 and 6. This review that I found was written about all six books in the series and I have selected only the comment about 'first series'. I probably go back to it for the second and the third. The whole review is worth a read and may be even better than "Prejudices: First Series" because some of Mencken's criticism essays are 'skippable'. I'll take a break from him and read a couple of other authors before going back to the 'second series'.

Much of Prejudices: First Series is devoted to the book reviews that first brought Mencken to the attention of American readers, and most of these pieces, if not exactly unreadable, are eminently skippable. By then he was already chafing at what he took to be the limitations of the littérateur’s art, and in the same year that Prejudices: First Series came out, he assured Louis Untermeyer that “you will escape from literary criticism, too, as I am trying to do. The wider field of ideas in general is too alluring.” - Untouchable by Terry Teachout in The New Criterion

19 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

The weather guys called it right with the low at 44° just a little warmer than they thought and a lot warmer than I did. The 10 Day forecast is looking very nice except for the chance of rain on Thursday and Saturday. The chances have been increased a little but are still in the guesswork range which means it might and it might not.

I got started reading Pure Theory of Politics by Bertrand de Jouvenel yesterday. It was downloaded from Internet Archives and is a poor quality OCR digitization but can be read. The Internet Archives books compare VERY unfavorably with what Gutenberg Project has to offer or what I have got from FEE and certainly from the Sierra Vista library.

I found this paragraph to be timely. The Electoral Collage will vote today and I believe they will elect The Donald. The Ministry of Propaganda will then have to find some other News topic for their daily soap opera drama. The Russian 'hacking' story is getting a little long in the tooth also. I guess they think that if it is repeated often enough then it will become true but I don't think the 'Deplorables' are buying it.

Our times are marked by a precipitous course of events and an attendant instability of configurations. Political maps and constitutions are highly perishable commodities. Every New Year, there are countries where foreign diplomats have to shift their compliments from the authorities of yesterday, now outlawed, to the outlaws of yesterday, now in authority. Those parts of the world where only small events occur within an unchanged framework have shrunk relative to those where major events shake and transform the framework. The character of the times therefore focuses our interest upon the event.

20 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

It seems that The Donald lost only two Electoral College votes from 'faithless electors' while The Hill lost 4. She would have lost more than that but state laws would not let the electors become 'faithless'. From what I have read the Ministry of Propaganda now considers this old News and The Donald is going to be president.

However, when the Electoral College votes are counted on 6 January 2017 the vote will be challenged. If any objections to the Electoral College vote are made, they must be submitted in writing and be signed by at least one member of the House and one Senator. If objections are presented, the House and Senate withdraw to their respective chambers to consider their merits under procedures set out in federal law. This is going to happen - bet on it!

A very pleasant 46° this morning with an expected 75 this afternoon. The weather guessers are now getting serious about the expected rain. They have added a day with a chance and increased Saturday to a 90% chance. That now means we might get some rain on Saturday.

The coyote that I wrote about has made an appearance every day since I have been here. He likes to hang around a clump pf bushes about 50 yard in front of Desperado. Yesterday he laid down there for a long time, maybe took a nap. There might be someone here in the Park that is putting food out for him or is leaving food outside and he has become dependent upon an easy meal. Having said that I notice that there are not any rabbits in this Park as there were in Lakewood. HA

I have some more passages from Pure Theory Of Politics that I are thought provoking. This is a good book which I would like even more if the digitization were better. It is FREE however so I guess I should not complain too much.

Parents are naturally stronger and more knowledgeable than we are, and naturally inclined to procure our welfare. It is a great convenience for the government of men that we are prone to assume these same traits in our rulers, however often experience proves our assumption to be ill-founded (which usually leads to no more than a transfer of our expectation).

The child needs a reliable environment. So, to a lesser degree, does the grown man. In the case of the child, there is an agency for the provision of a reliable environment: the enfolding family group. In the case of the man, reconcillation of reliability with freedom and change poses the most difficult problems of Politics.

Man appears within a family, and in time forms a family. But the family he forms as an adult is then only a special and privileged segment of his human contacts, while at the outset all his human contacts are within the family which fosters him. We are 'homemade' and derive therefrom certain expectations concerning our relations with our fellows, which are more or less sharply disappointed when we move out of the home; their vigour is attested by our readiness to espouse the ideal of a nation-wide or world-wide family. The urge to collectivism is present to some degree in most men, whether consciously or not, stemming from the experience of our childhood. The more definite its wording, the more clear it becomes that the picture is drawn from the model of the family. ' One for all and all for one, from each according to his capacity, to each according to his needs': these are the 'natural ways' of the home.

Man is capable of love, devotion, admiration, respect, resentment, fear, envy, anger, vengefulness, cruelty. His passions are essential to Politics, and therefore we are justified in drawing attention to their early shaping within the home. The development of the child should receive a great deal of attention from students of Politics—the form of adult activity wherein the traits of childish behaviour are best preserved.

21 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

The Winter Solstice occurred this morning at 5:44 EST which is a very good thing. The days will now start to get longer again and I will soon be doing my morning walk in twilight rather than the dark. I'll then celebrate the vernal equinox, also known as the beginning of Spring, at my next camp and will be walking in full morning sun.

To celebrate I started laundry after doing a very nice walk in a balmy dark morning. We got a little rain off and on (none officially) during the early hours of the morning but I stayed dry under heavy clouds that contributed to the darkness. The low was 58° but it was 60-61 while I was out there and with my wool shirt/jacket I was overdressed. The weather gurus have now increased the chances for rain to 90% for tomorrow and 100% for Saturday. The experts really, really think it is going to rain. Note: It started raining again, but not much, about an hour before I posted this.

This is Panel #22 which I said would be easier because I could use circles. That proved to be the case and I was able to make it easier yet by using "for loops" to draw all the half circles and 'decorative' lines. I think I also learned something while drawing this panel that will help me do a better, and easier, job of drawing Knots.
I'll know if that is true when confronted with my next Knot panel. I have started panel #23 which is extremely easy and looked at #24 which does not appear that difficult. This will complete all of the panels on the first of 6 pages of them. I have also started looking at doing some Penrose tilings but that is in the very early study stage.

There is a LOT of hand wringing by the 'metal experts' over the drop in the prices of gold and silver. What they are not saying is that the prices are still higher than they were on 1 January 2016. If the prices were able to go up during 2016 I see no reason why they can not go back up in 2017. The only market indexes that have been on a straight line UP have been for stocks but I think the day of their decline is coming.

22 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

It rained a good rain last night and this morning, 0.39" from the storm so far and there are still very heavy clouds. That measurement is from Ajo, we may have received more or less here but it was enough to make for a big puddle. I found it by walking through it in the dark and it was deep enough to flow through the mesh top of my shoes.

Predicted to be MUCH COOLER today than the 73° high that we had yesterday. Maybe 61 with a continued 70% chance of rain. Saturday still is thought to have a 100% chance with a high temperature in the upper 50s. That will not be a very good day but I hope it holds off until then and I can get my shopping done tomorrow without getting wet.

I have been reading about Penrose tiling and have decided that I will try to do some with the rhombus” form of Penrose tiles. Ordinary rhombus-shaped tiles can be used to tile the plane periodically (this is what all my previous tilings have been), so restrictions must be made on how tiles can be assembled for aperiodic tilings. When constructing a Penrose tiling, two adjacent vertices must both be blank or must both be black. If two edges lie next to each other they must both be blank, or both have an arrow. If the two adjacent edges have arrows, both arrows must point in the same direction.

I have drawn the two Penrose rhombus tiles showing the 'matching rules'. Then one of the 7 vertex combinations that are possible when following the imposed rules. I'll draw the other 6 before I attempt to do any tiling so I know how to replicate what I am looking at in pictures. If/when I can do some replications then I may attempt to do something creative - HA. Meanwhile I have a panel to finish and more of the 3-uniform tile series to do.

No society could endure if, as is sometimes implicitly assumed, its members became hostile to it by reason of and in proportion to their lowly status within it. Should you so plan a society as to establish and maintain equality in every respect you can think of, there would naturally be a restoration of scarce, desirable positions, by nature attainable only by a minority. You can allot equal time to each member of an Assembly: but you cannot ensure that each will command equal attention. You can chase unequal (more or less log-normal) distributions out of one field after another: they will reappear in new fields. Nor are men so base as to be disaffected from any ordering in which they are low-placed: they are indeed lavish in the precedence they afford to those who excel in performances they value. What exasperates them is a system of qualifying values which seems to them scandalous, a social scaling which jars with their scoring cards.

In time, emergent authority always wins, and its victory goes far beyond a mere replacement of personnel within established positions. Established positions of authority are the shells generated, captured, extended, destroyed and replaced by the play of political enterprise. History is a museum of broken shells and a workshop of new forms.- Pure Theory Of Politics, Bertrand de Jouvenel

23 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

We got a little more rain during the day yesterday but was clearing by the time I went for my afternoon walk. This morning the low was 49° but a pleasant 52 while I was out there.

Unhooked electric and drove through a heavy fog between Why and Ajo to reach Olsen's market. Got almost everything that I wanted except psoriasis shampoo and Greek Gods yogurt neither of them will I see again until February. Stopped at Granny's Kitchen for breakfast and had their Spanish Omelet this time which was very good.

This is #28 [3⁴6; 3²6²; 6³] and #29 [3⁶; 3²6²; 6³] in the 3-uniform series. When I looked at #30,#31 & #32 I saw that all three have the same identifying number. They do look different so I am going to draw them all and will then post them all at the same time. Those 3, Panel #24 and the Penrose vertex drawings should keep me entertained into the new year.

24 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

Both Verizon and WIFI were extremely slow yesterday. Trying to do any drawing was very frustrating and just my usual web browsing was a pain. Then late in the day when I got back from my afternoon walk I could not connect to the WIFI at all. WIFI is back this morning which surprises me a little with the winds blowing.

The low temperature was 53-54° and happened while I was out there this morning. The wind was blowing 10-13mph with gusts of 20mph but a Wind Advisory is predicting gusts of 55mpg with the obvious advise that "high profile vehicles will be affected by the strong gusty winds". I could very well have a 'Rockin Merry Christmas'. Also cold - 57° expected high today and 54 tomorrow.

I liked this book and wish I could have read the trilogy in order. I have found "On Power" (in .pdf format) but still trying to find a free download of "Sovereignty". I have quoted from the book in the past few days so there has been a good sampling of the book presented. This book promo does not add much but there are not any worthwhile reviews that I can find.

In this concluding volume in the trilogy that begins with On Power and moves to Sovereignty , Bertrand de Jouvenel proposes to remedy a serious deficiency in political science, namely, “the lack of agreement on first principles, or ‘elements.’” The author’s concern is with political processes as they actually exist, not as they are conjectured to be in hypothetical models. As an indication of the originality and imaginativeness that Jouvenel brings to his task, the sections explore “Politics as History,” “Setting: Ego in Otherdom,” “Action: Instigation and Response,” “Authority: ‘Potestas’ and ‘Potentia,’” “Decisions,” and “Attitudes.” Jouvenel draws richly upon the “drama of politics” as it is portrayed in the works of Thucydides and Shakespeare. - goodreads.com Book Promo

One final segment quoted that I found to be timely.

We would not follow [our leader] if we did not feel that it was in some way 'good'. And therefore it seems to us correspondingly 'bad' not to follow him. We pity or despise the weak-minded, the fainthearted, who prove irresponsive to [him]. Must we not hustle them into the fold? Thus the company of the willing presses hard upon the unwilling and drives them along by intimidation. Such a phenomenon can be observed in a society of boys where reluctant individuals are carried in the wake of an assertive band. Moreover, if it is already 'wrong' in our eyes not to go along with us, it is even worse to oppose us: opponents should be battered into submission. Thus every pleasant trait which our company has, when regarded by itself, has its unpleasant counterpart, when the impact upon others is considered. We follow [our leader] of our own will, freely, but, by so doing, we constitute a force which can coerce others into obeying [him] against their will, unfreely.
Between members of the company there obtains a warm comradeship, which is surely far superior to the tepid sympathy which we show to our fellow-citizens in the ordinary course of things: here is real community revived. Yes, but this gain in affection within our circle is paid for in feelings of contempt towards non-joiners, in feelings of indignation, anger, rage, hatred, against opponents. What a pleasure it is to love and honour our leader...

Psychologically, the sickness of p.c. [political correct] progressivism feeds off unearned guilt. Advancement of these arguments does not count on rational persuasion. Their policies are almost always imposed by force. Progressives are never educators; they are always regulators. What p.c. advocates count on is your feeling guilty. Did you notice that every time something didn’t go Obama’s way during his miserable presidency that he’d blame it on “institutional racism”? There’s a specific purpose for that. Most people don’t know what “institutional racism” or sexism actually is. You’re not supposed to understand. You’re just supposed to think or feel, “I guess I’m part of that. I’d better buckle under and do what The Man says. Otherwise, I’m a racist.”
You can replace the same mentality when sexism is thrown around as if it’s somehow your fault, personally. In reality, the true sexists and racists are the ones who treat race and gender as if they’re achievements. They’re not.

An Exercise in Numerology
Quite frankly, we don’t really know what the Dow and the national debt have to do with each other. We can’t quite put a finger on it. Nonetheless, we have a hunch both milestones are in some way emblematic of a great transformation that has taken place.
Is Dow 20,000 and U.S. National Debt $20 trillion merely a coincidence? Or is there a correlation? And if there is a correlation, does it imply causation?...
To begin, we peer back to the past in search of arbitrary data points that look as if they’re interrelated. For example, in the autumn of 1982 the Dow surpassed 1,000. This wasn’t the first time this happened. But 1982 is the last time the Dow rose above 1,000 without then dipping back below. Similarly, 1982 is when the U.S. National Debt topped the $1 trillion mark...
A statistician may run the numbers for the Dow and the U.S. National Debt and conclude that there’s a weak correlation, and certainly no causation. They may even graph a scatter plot to make their case.
A numerologist may look at the divinely round numbers and infer something much different. Maybe even that there’s a connection that can be projected into the future. Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

25 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The rain came just a little before noon yesterday after the weather guys lost their confidence and reduced the chance to 60%. They had it forecast at 100% starting days ago and then changed it yesterday. They reduced their guess about the high temperature to 56° but I didn't believe them and fired up the Wave 6 when it started raining. It rained steady for a coupe hours and then the storm blew on by and I was able to get out for my afternoon walk under a clearing sky and dodging good size puddles left from the 0.21" rainfall.

The more that I have read and the more 'matching rule' diagrams I have looked at the more convinced I have become that the Penrose Vertex drawing that I showed on 22 December was wrong. I have changed it to what I now think is the correct 'matching'. I probably will not know for sure until I try to do something creative versus just replicating a pattern that I look at.

I got #30,#31 & #32 in the 3-uniform series of tilings drawn during the past couple of days. The first two were very easy, #32 gave me some trouble but I finally wrestled it into shape. Looking ahead I see that #33, #34 & #35 all have the same identifying number also but I can see a difference so will draw them all and post them together. First things first which is Panel #24 and more Penrose Vertex drawings.

This is one of the 'Essential' books published by the Foundation for Economic Education. I previously posted one on Leonard E. Read and have two others that I have downloaded. It is a short book that includes essays/short articles that Hazlitt wrote and the FEE compiled as a book.

Henry Hazlitt (1894–1993) was one of the greatest economic journalists of the 20th century. He is the author of Economics in One Lesson among twenty other book; was a chief editorial writer for the New York Times; and wrote weekly for Newsweek. He was a founding board member of the Foundation for Economic Education, where he served in an editorial capacity at The Freeman. Upon his death in 1993, Hazlitt bequeathed his library to the Foundation, which it retains to this day. - FEE book promo

A couple of quote from the book. The first one strikes me as what The Donald is facing during his first year in office. The Establishment will be doing every thing that they can to make this first scenario come to pass. He must also reverse the impact of the welfare state if there is to be any chance at all of making America Great Again.

It is not always by going from bad to worse that a country falls into revolution. It happens most frequently that a people, which had supported the most crushing laws without complaint, and apparently as if they were unfelt, throws them off with violence as soon as the burden begins to be diminished. The state of things destroyed by a revolution is almost always somewhat better than that which immediately preceded it; and experience has shown that the most dangerous moment for a bad government is usually that when it enters upon the work of reform. Nothing short of great political genius can save a sovereign who undertakes to relieve his subjects after a long period of oppression. The evils which were endured with patience so long as they were inevitable seem intolerable as soon as a hope can be entertained of escaping from them. The abuses which are removed seem to lay bare those which remain, and to render the sense of them more acute; the evil has decreased, it is true, but the perception of the evil is more keen....

The welfare state, as Bastiat put it with uncanny clairvoyance more than a century ago, is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else. This is not only a fiction; it is bound to be a failure. This is sure to be the outcome whenever effort is separated from reward. When people who earn more than the average have their “surplus,” or the greater part of it, seized from them in taxes, and when people who earn less than the average have the deficiency, or the greater part of it, turned over to them in handouts and doles, the production of all must sharply decline; for the energetic and able lose their incentive to produce more than the average, and the slothful and unskilled lose their incentive to improve their condition.

26 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

It was only a little colder this morning at 36° than yesterday. The good news is that the weather guys think it will be WARMER at 58° today for the high. The even better news is that they expect the highs to move back into the 60s and the lows into the 40s for the rest of 2016. Then colder when the new year begins but not that cold, about like today.

This is panel #23 which is one of the simplest patterns that I have drawn so far. Perhaps the person that drew them for the web page that I have been replicating was as tired after doing #22 as was I.


I am now involved in #24 which has not been as easy as it looked at first glance. It is coming along but much slower than I thought it was going to be.

Exit, Hope and Change by James Howard Kunstler is a good read. He lost faith in Obama soon after he entered his second term. These are his parting comments as he gears up for The Donald. I expect him to find far more fault with whatever The Donald does than he did with Obama but probably will not be more disappointed.

I didn’t vote for Hillary or Donald Trump (I wrote-in David Stockman). I’m not happy to see Donald Trump become president. But I’ve had enough of Mr. Obama. He put up a good front. He seemed congenial and intelligent. But in the end, he appears to be a kind of stooge for the darker forces in America’s overgrown bureaucratic Deep State racketeering operation. Washington truly is a swamp that needs to be drained. Barack Obama was not one of the alligators in it, but he was some kind of bird with elegant plumage that sang a song of greeting at every sunrise to the reptiles who stirred in the mud. And now he is flying away.

Now two months following the greatest political upheaval most of us will ever witness, we are seeing the dawning of a new reality: Obama failed. The supposed successes such as the Affordable Care Act have become a handful of dust, and we are left with a huge amount of executive orders and signed legislation that seem destined for repeal.
Eight years in office, and there’s not much to show for it. Economic growth never did take off. Hope and change ended in frustration and fear. The last month of the Obama years has been spent in a frenzy to do something, anything, important to secure his place in history: releasing prisoners, imposing new regulations, putting on the final spin...
And so he leaves office, confused about what went wrong, worried about his legacy, alarmed at the destruction of his party, and fearful about the forces of reaction that his health care reform and persistent economic stagnation has unleashed. There is an element of tragedy here. It is the fate of a man who knew everything except the one thing he needed to know in order to generate genuine and lasting hope and change.

27 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

I bought myself a Christmas present yesterday. In fact I bought 3: first there were two bottles of Dermarest Psoriasis Shampoo which I can not buy here in Ajo. Then the real present: a Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch to replace the Timex GPS watch that still works fine but is falling apart and could quit at any time. I bought the Timex on 9 February 2014 and had the wrist band clasp break on 30 April 2015. I cut off the band and have used it as a pocket watch ever since then but it is time for a replacement. With any luck I'll get these packages next year.

On 24 December I said that I have found "On Power" (in .pdf format) by Bertrand de Jouvenel and had downloaded it. I misspoke, I got "On Power" for my Paperwhite and got his "Ethics of Redistribution" in .pdf format. I am now reading both of them; "Power" on Paperwhite while on the couch and "Ethics" on Adobe Reader while using my laptop and taking a break from drawing or web browsing.

That is about all I am doing - reading, drawing, walking twice a day. Today I did spend some time cooking a few days 'linners' as a batch which I then select a serving and re-heat each day. I'll probably cook a different batch tomorrow and then will have two 'linners' to chose from during the next 6-7 days.

These are tilings #30, #31 & #32 in the 3-uniform series which I am posting together because the identifying number[3⁶; 3⁴6; 3²6²] is the same for each one. Although they have the same number these do look different whereas in the past those with the same number looked very much the same.

28 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

A high overcast day so far but is expected to reach the lower 70s. It is having a hard time getting there so far. I have had the Wave 6 on and off 2-3 times during this morning. It is now approaching 50° at 10:00 and it will go off again.

I am not doing much again today. I will cook that second batch of 'linners' but that is about the only thing that even approaches doing anything different. I do need to get started preparing next months Will Rogers weekly articles today or tomorrow.

I have finished the 3-uniform tilings and have only two more of the Penrose vertex remaining to be drawn. Wasted a lot of time this morning looking for Penrose tiling patterns that I can draw. Have found a few but not many different ones, lots of repeats for what is touted to have 'infinite' possibilities.

This is Panel #24 which proved to be a little harder to draw than it looked like it would be at first glance. I did not do a faithful reproduction; there were some more lines that I thought were extraneous and distracted from the pattern rather than adding to it - I left them off. I did get a lot of satisfaction in drawing the 'notches' as shown however.


I will now be selecting patterns from the second page on the web site that has 24 more, some look like they will be very easy and some will be very difficult. The first one #25 looks to be easy.

29 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

A busy morning so I'm late getting to this posting. Haven't even read my Daily Blogs nor any News. Started the day with a little shorter walk and then breakfast at Granny's Kitchen where I got a good Huevos ala Mexicana with some home fries that could have stayed in the deep fryer for awhile longer. but to make up for that I was offered a dozen fresh tamales, my choice of pork, beef or green chile-n-cheese. I chose door #3!

I then drove out to the Virgil Ellis Shooting Range near Ajo to see what was available. Not much except for some nice shooting benches. You need to bring your own target stands and targets. The targets I expected but thought there would be stands. So I will probably not be shooting here unless I meet someone that has stands.

Stopped at Belly Acres RV Park and got my propane tank filled. I have been running the Wave 6 more than usual and needed to refill about 6 weeks earlier than usual. That was almost across the street from Olsen's market where I got another week's groceries. I have wanted some unsalted peanuts in the shell for the past two weeks and the produce girl keeps saying that she has ordered them but they have not been delivered. However, I did find some barley. I did not really need it at this time but never know when I will find any so I picked up three pounds.

When I got back to my RV space I dumped holding tanks and took on fresh water. The fresh water idiot light was showing 3/4 full until yesterday when it suddenly plunged to 1/4 full. I knew it was time and knew that I should also ignore the idiot light.

These are Penrose Vertex #2, #3 & #4 drawings. I'll show the other 3 in a day or two. The time and effort that I put into drawing these I think will pay off as I have started replicating a design that I have found.

30 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

I got all the Will Rogers weekly articles for next month copied and formatted yesterday. I also did some drawing on the Penrose design that I am attempting to replicate but have problems and sort of stuck for now. I think it is time to try a different approach.

Not doing much of anything different from my usual routine. The reading of "Power" is moving along but it is rather slow.

In this quote from "The Fourth Turning" the Oh-Ohs refer to the years 2000-2009 so they would be predicting this for about 2005-2006.
"By the middle Oh-Ohs, institutions will reach a point of maximum weakness, individualism of maximum strength, and even the simplest public task will feel beyond the ability of government. As niche walls rise ever higher, people will complain endlessly how bad all of the niches are. Wide chasms will separate rich from poor, whites from blacks, immigrants from native borns, seculars from born agains, technophiles from technophobes. America will feel more tribal. Indeed, many will be asking whether fifty states and so many dozens of ethic cultures make sense any more as a nation – and, if they do, whether that nation has a future...
People young and old will puzzle over what it felt like for their parents and grandparents, in a distantly remembered era, to have lived in a society that felt like one national community. They will yearn to recreate this, to put America back together again. But no one will know how. - Straus and Howe: “The Fourth Turning”

31 December
Hickiwan Trails RV Park
Why, AZ

The weather this past week has been very nice since the rain on Christmas Eve. Now the weather guessers are trying to spoil the beginning of the New Year with a predicted 80% chance of rain tomorrow. They then think it is going to be great weather again through the rest of the 10 Day forecast. Looking good!

The Penrose tiling pattern that I am attempting to reproduce is non-periodic, which means that it lacks any translational symmetry but it does allow reflection symmetry and fivefold rotational symmetry. My new approach to drawing the pattern is to take advantage of what is allowed so I have moved away from using vertex combinations and have built 'groups' that I can fit together, or maybe not. We will see.

These are Vertex #5, #6 & #7 which were well worth the time spent drawing them. It gave me the knowledge and acquired skills to build the 'groups'. I have at least one more of these groups remaining to be drawn, maybe 2 or 3, but will take a rest and draw panel #25 or at least start it.