Arnold declares a drought emergency in California

Can't get the link to this but California is in a drought emergency. You might be thinking who cares I don't live there. Well this is going to affect the rest of the nation because California produces one quarter of the nations food supply. Some 750,000 acres of farm land in that state will be affected with federal water managment saying they will release no water.

It's time to get out there and plant a victory garden. You may be glad to have even a small container garden when you see the prices of produce at the local markets in the coming months. We're still experiencing freezes here but you can do starter plants indoors until things get warmer. You also might want to do a rain barrel because we don't know how our rain situation will be this year.

Update: Looks like Texas is in the same boat as California and unless the weather pattern in the Pacific changes that boat will be sailing on dust. I'm just wondering what to plant this year. Will it be cold and wet or hot and dry? If the weather pattern changes like it did in the 1930s then were all screwed because here's what's happening right now. Farmers aren't even bothering to plant some crops because they know the won't have enought water. Ranchers are getting rid of a lot of their cattle because they can't grow the feed crops and don't have the water. And you know chickens take a good bit of water. So I guess you'll just have to go and eat dirt.

The fickle finger of fate

As I mentioned the other day there are some days that nothing goes right and you're better off just packing it in and going home. Well today was the other side of the coin. Went to the clinic for lab work and to straighten out a bill. They had sent me a bill that went back over a year. And here in lies a lesson. If you get a bill that you know you don't owe get off your butt and see a person face to face with the evidence in hand. As it turned out the computer was set to credit my account everytime I paid which I do everytime I go so there's no balance. The computer didn't do that and spit out a bill for $250. Now some people would have just paid it without thinking. I won't do that since I have no balance and get a nice discount for the pay as you go method.
In my shopping trip I found a few other things I had looked for the last time out as well as something for $20 that I had seen for $50. Things went so well I should have bought a lottery ticket.

In other news it appears Obama is continuing to undo the mess that Bush has given us.
If you haven't bothered to read the Recovery Act I'll give just a glimpse of some of the things in there.
No more no bid contracts for Iraq
Funding for EPA and Superfund (Thanks Barrack that's up my alley)
Money for Veteran health care
Funding for National Sciences (hey somebody figured global warming is real)
Funding for Cops (remember Clinton wanting to put 100,000 more cops on the street)
Funding for the military (this is for rebuilding run down barricks and other buildings)
That's just a part of it. It's 407 pages and I can't really say I fully understand all of the aspects of the bill but it is pretty clear where Obama wants to take the country. If we can get even a part of the way there in the next year we'll be doing well. Will there be more spending? I'd say so. But as we saw trickle down economics does not work so the help must come from the bottom up not the top down.

Happy Birthday Steve

I remember the first Apple Macintosh I bought back in (I think it was) 95. Back then I knew almost nothing about computers. Some years before that I had the fortune to own a timex sinclair. It did very little and took hours to program to do the simplest things. When I was looking for a computer in 95 still not knowing much because computers had advanced so much in 10 years I went around to several stores and started to see what they were all about. One salesman seeing that I was playing around with a Mac said stop I can show you a machine for much less that will get the job done. He showed me a windows machine. I'm a pretty cheap (make that frugal) person. But I had heard horror stories about frustrated windoze users. It may have looked like a great machine but then I stopped to consider that it came with nothing. Machine and operating system was all you got. Much like buying a pizza with only cheeze. That might have been alright had I been in grade school. I used to love plain cheeze pizza in the third grade but I wanted a bit more.
I found a computer store stand alone that had a bunch of Macs. This was way before Mac Stores. In playing around I found in the top right corner the word tutorial. I clicked on it and the rest was history. It was unique. It guided this computer illiterate soul through the ins and out of the machine. If I did something wrong it would guide me through with a gentle Oops and a red circle around my mistake. It would then show me what I should have done. So in about 15 minutes this old dog had learned some very new tricks. And the bonus. Unlike the windoze machine this beauty came with a printer, modem, 15 programs, a year of internet, and subscription to McAddict magazine.
Since that first machine I've owned two more as the technology advanced from floppy disks to CDs and then to DVDs. I recently bought an ipod touch and I must say that is the future of computing. This thing with the right programs is like a swiss army knife of the tech world. You can surf the web, email, word processing, listen to music, watch videos, watch TV, listen to radio, record music or voice, play games, one program lets you use it as a level while another you can turn it into a flashlight.

To Steve Jobs who's years ahead of Microsoft I wish you a very Happy Birthday and may you have many many more.

One of those days

Made a nice little to do list yesterday and then proceeded to have one of those nothing goes right days. Went to the clinic to have some regular lab work and straighten out a bill. Sometimes I feel like a lab rat. Once per year they do a physical. I feel like that's only to make sure I'm still breathing. Hey he's still warm he's good to go. Then of course there's the blood draws for heavy metals when we work on those types of jobs.
So I get to the clinic only to find out that they're out sick. Call before you come next time I'm told. They're getting to be as bad as dentists. Most dentists around here only work three or four days a week.
Went to the next item on the list. Pick up a phone calling card for a relative. He's a bit disabled and only has limited local service on a cheap cell phone. Went to one store and find that they stopped selling those about three weeks ago. Strike one. Go to another store. They had some off brand service at a rediculous price. Strike two. Go to one last store and find they only have one card that they wanted $80 for and they wouldn't take a check as payment. Strike three. I said the heck with it and went home. I guess some days you just can not win so it's time to give up and call it quits because that spirit or karma or whatever you want to call it is just working against you. You ever notice that? There are times that no matter what you do things turn out wrong. Then there are those rare occasions when everything goes right no matter what you do. Unfortunately the wrongs always seem to outnumber rights.

Happy Blogiversary to Me (belated)

Almost slipped my mind that two years ago yesterday I started this blog. Why? I don't know. I had been posting comments on a couple of blogs and the guys there (Blah3 in particular) encouraged me to start my own. But I must say I much prefer to comb other blogs and leave a little snark here or there like a hit and run driver. I also like to research current topics to find those overlooked tidbits that MSM never seems to bring out in the open. So sorry if you missed the party. It wasn't much but the cat had fun.

Depression era cooking

I remember surviving the recession of the early eighties and was just thinking how we made it through. About all we had at that time was a large bag of flour and those big blocks of government cheese. So what do you make that's balanced. Pizza of course! With a large jar of tomato sauce and whatever left over veggies or meat it makes a very balanced diet and by making it yourself it has less in the way of fat (except the cheese) and salt. So that's one of the things we live off of for several months. Needless to say I couldn't eat pizza for a long time after that. But that got me to thinking about other meals for surviving the depression. Any favorite poor boy receipes you'd care to add just leave them in the comments. Remember we're all in this together.

What do you bet the Bush crime family has their money hidden here?

Or at least some of it. Either here or in some offshore account under a phoney corporation name.

I'm guessing in an attempt to find out where Bernie Madoff has hidden a good chunk of the $50 billion the US government was able to get the names of eight Swiss bank accounts. There are according to this article some 52,000 accounts that our government wanted a peek at for tax evasion purposes. And you know Madoff had help. No way in hell could he have come up with all those monthly statements to his clients by himself.

$$


Sorry for the lack of posts but you get to a point of burn out. There just isn't much to snark about that hasn't already been covered. Hopefully as spring approaches the beavers will be out in their usual Friday glory. Now since today was forcast to be nice weatherwise I've got a bunch of stuff to do. Or as they say up near the great lakes "make hay while the sun shines". We take that expression literally around here.

Hey where's my bailout? And I don't want any chump change either.

History repeats itself

Looking through a drawer the other day I came upon a coppertype (an old photo printed on copper) that gramdma gave me many years ago. It's a photo of Warren G. Harding our 21st president. That's one part of history I really haven't studied so I thought I look up old Warren. Didn't know if he was a republican or democrat. The more I dug into this history the more I found him to be a typical rethuglican. He lowered taxes on most peoples' income by a whopping 1% while totally eliminating all the taxes on those making 300K or more. Oh but it gets better. Like the typical den of thieves his minions were doing some shady deals out in Wyoming and California. One of his cabnet members gave a no bid contract for oil drilling rights in those states. One hundred thousand dollars changed hands and bribery charges were brought. Sound familiar (Haliburton)? This little episode was called Tea Pot Dome after the area in Wyoming. Ron Blogoevich might have been proud of them but they got caught as well. Hey Ron this was when they didn't have tape recorders too.

But back to my antique photo of Warren G. Once I found out the history I decided to see if I could find out if the photo was worth anything. Don't want to have anything around here that reminds me of what that party has done to this country. It would be like having a portrait of Hoover, Nixon, or worse Bush Jr. The portrait seems to be the official white house issued but unlike any of it's day it's done on copper. I'm wondering if this wasn't some gift to Grandpa for a campaign donation. Grandpa was pretty high up in a corporation so I'm sure he was a Republican. I've looked all over the web for anything like it and find nothing.
Grandma did leave me with a bunch of old tintypes but they are fairly easy to value and I don't think I'll part with them.

California unincorporated

I know if I was a resident of California and out of work I'd be down at the capitol building with pitch fork and torch.

California

Here's an idea lay off the legislators. That would save a ton of money.
They say you can screw things up but to really screw things up use a computer. I say if you really really want to screw things up let a couple dozen legislators get together.

In other news

If this gal was so smart why is she homeless?

Found a new web site about all the haz mat news and accidents you don't usually hear about. Incidents from CSB

That's about it for me today. Nothing really new. Carry on.

The bleeding continues

Four more banks have gone kaput on Friday.

Pinnacle Bank of Oregon, Beaverton, OR February 13, 2009 February 13, 2009
Corn Belt Bank and Trust Company, Pittsfield, IL February 13, 2009 February 13, 2009
Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast, Cape Coral, FL February 13, 2009 February 13, 2009
Sherman County Bank, Loup City, NE February 13, 2009 February 13, 2009

That's 13 banks in the last month and a half. I heard that before this is all over some 1000 banks will either be bought or simply vanish. I hate to sound like Dr. Gloom (there's already a blogger named Dr. Doom) but this is reality. There's too many bad loans not getting paid and not enough capital or income to cover the losses.

But here's a solution that might help everyone. To get a real value of a house at present go back about ten years. Take the value of the house then and add the rate of inflation which would be a 20 to 30 % increase from that point. That would be fairly close to the real value. Take the new valuation and subtract that from the current mortgage amount. The government gets to hold a note on 1/2 of the difference. The bank gets to write off the other half on an accelerated schedule. The mortgage gets refinanced at new lower rates and new valuation. After ten years the government can sell the note when the home value increases to an acceptable level. The note gets paid back when the home is sold or added to the mortgage when the refinanced mortgage is paid off. Don't laugh it just might work.
Or we could just go with the alternative. Let the foreclosures continue and bulldoze the empty houses thereby decreasing the supply of homes. Lower supply equals higher prices along with bread lines.

I hear they're upping the unemployment by $45. Hey I have an idea. Keep the $45 and get me back to work.
There was a job down in Tacoma, Wa. for meter reader. Something like 6000 people showed up to apply for the job (one opening). And they say we're not in a depression.

Well it's off to a recert class tomorrow. Got to keep you people safe from them tehrrrorists .

Valentines Day

Here's a quick history lesson about the real Valentines day that seemed to get covered up by a lot of Madison Ave BS. I guess this could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who's name you drew in the lottery. I wonder if they had the three ugly ones?

February 14 is Valentine's Day. Although it is celebrated as a lovers' holiday today, with the giving of candy, Valentine flowers, or other gifts between couples in love, it originated in 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop.

For eight hundred years prior to the establishment of Valentine's Day, the Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February commemorating young men's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. The celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of teenage girls from a box. The girl assigned to each young man in that manner would be his sexual companion during the remaining year.

In an effort to do away with the pagan festival, Pope Gelasius ordered a slight change in the lottery. Instead of the names of young women, the box would contain the names of saints. Both men and women were allowed to draw from the box, and the game was to emulate the ways of the saint they drew during the rest of the year. Needless to say, many of the young Roman men were not too pleased with the rule changes.

Why is it that the church must quash anything that might be the least bit pleasurable. If they had their way they'd even get inside your brain to erase even the slightest impure thought. God forbid we be thought of as physical creatures in the flesh.

Tax cuts Smax cuts

I don't understand why those red dog republicans just don't seem to understand why a cut in taxes whether it be for business or the rest of us peons will do nothing for our economy. Tax cuts work when the economy is humming along and looks like it might start to tank. In that case it helps business and consumers continue as usual. But in order to balance things spending cuts must go hand in hand. Tax cuts do not create jobs. Let me repeat that for all the deaf republicans out there. TAX CUTS DO NOT CREATE JOBS! That is not some talking point by a liberal radio talk show host. That is a fact. Ask any economist in this country.
It doesn't seem that the red dogs are listening to us. I guess they didn't get the message when we voted a bunch of them out of office. As one of the definitions of insanity goes "A person who does the same thing over and over again with the same result and expects a different result." In this case cutting taxes and expecting the economy to improve. Reminds me of another favorite phrase of mine "the firings will continue until the economy improves. We did tax cuts five times under Bush. Everytime there was a funding bill for the Iraq war (hey I thought we won that already) there was tax cuts for business neatly hidden in it. Funding for the troops medical (yep you guessed it) tax cuts for business. Sorry boys you spent the last eight years stealing us blind and now I want it back but unlike you who shuffled some papers and robbed us, I'm willing to work for it. I'm willing to rebuild the roads and the schools and all the rest of America so that we actually have something left to defend.

Hey but don't believe me on anything I say about tax cuts. Take some time and look around at economists who've made it their lifes work.

Tax Cuts

Update The stumilus bill passed although all republicans voted against it. Remember that next year in the congressional elections. That when you asked your elected officials for a life preserver they wanted to hand you an anchor. Remember this well.

Birds are flying north in winter?

Depicts 28,000 42-gallon barrels, the amount of of oil consumed in the United States every two minutes (equal to the flow of a medium-sized river).


Snave over at Various Ecstasies has an article about birds flying north this winter and that got me thinking about our little planet. Chris Jordan is a photographer and artist who has been trying for a few years to have us stop and consider exactly how much this country consumes in various time frames. Go to the link and take a look at his work. It will make you stop and consider when you throw that tissue or paper towel in the trash exactly what effect we as a nation have on our environment and the planet.
The above photo is from his Running The Numbers series. Each photo is followed by another that zooms in closer to give a unique perspective of what we use or throw away. Have a look at the link. It's a real eye opener.

Chris Jordan

Want a headache?

I found a copy of the House version of the stimulus bill on the web yesterday. If you ever wanted a screaming headache then reading the full text of this is sure the way to do it. On the plus side there are a lot good ideas that this country should have done starting eight years ago like rebuild the infrastructure, but then there's the minus side. On the minus side there's no real details as to how and who will spend the money. Then there's little amendments that refer to this section or that paragraph and of course changes striking this line or that. In reading it I tried to catch the bold face headings just to get a sense of what was in it. After about an hour of reading my eyes started to water and my head started to throb. I guess that's what happens when you try to read something written by lawyers.
Maybe we could just put a team together of ordinary people like BBC, Macrum and the Monkeyfister. I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to have them come up with a real budget and spending plan that would work. It's not rocket science to figure out what it costs to do a project. Yes there would be some cost overuns at times but nothing like what would happen compared to when corporations and congress climb in bed together.

Then there's the PCA CEO who should be charged with murder. That's my opinion anyway. Nothing like selling contaminated peanut products that you know are contaminated. The link: Bad nuts
In this case a couple of bad nuts did spoil the whole bunch. The sad part is that companies that are not associated with the recall will see a drop in sales because who wants to risk their life on a maybe. Maybe it's safe maybe it isn't. That's one lottery you don't want to loose. At 1800 products who wants to take the chance? The real problem? You don't know how far the contamination has spread and what products were produced in a plant that used the peanuts. Note on the package in small print "this product produced in a plant that also produces peanut products". That's for those with peanut allergies but who's to say the peanut products didn't cross contaminate other products.
I realize he's a busy man but this would be a golden opportunity for Jimmy Carter. He was a peanut farmer at one point.

I Like It!

I'm just hearing that there will now be a "Super Regulator" to deal with the wall street mess. I like it. This reminds me of several good examples of days past. The first:
Sitting in the third grade class when the teacher had to leave the room for an extended time. In just a few short minutes the class is in mayhem. Children climbing on desks. Boys throwing spitballs at girls. Girls getting in fights with other girls. And a din of noise and confusion. And the old unmarried white haired school marm returns picks up the yard stick and smacks it on her desk to bring order. "And now students pull out your composition books and write a 25 page paper about why you need to mantain order in the classroom".



The second:
Mom and Dad decide to go on vacation leaving their teen children at home. With no oversite and guidance the place turns into something out of Animal House. Parties insue. Wild parties with debauchery and on occasion police reports become common in the ensuing days. Mom and dad return to find what was once a peaceful and well maintained house in shambles wrecked to near beyond repair. And there stands Dad at the entry his ears red with steam coming out. Then the clean up begins. Armed with scrub brushes and paint brushes and all manner of cleaning supplies the spawn set out to undo the damage of their weeks of fun.

A belated B.A.D. day

I forgot about that Blog Amnesty Day thing. There's a bunch of good little blogs out there that I read but don't have in my sidebar because I feel if that real estate has to many links it begins to look like wallpaper and nobody will bother to check any of the links. Ever go to a blog that has so many links at the side you could spend a lifetime clicking links? That to me seems like a diservice and an insult to the person you linked to. Ya I kind of liked your blog so I thought I'd slap a link in the side with the other ten thousand I have there. Kind of like throwing something in the kitchen junk drawer never to really be seen again.

So with those thoughts in mind I would like to add a few names to the sidebar. And rest assured you do mean more to me than just some blip on a radar screen.

Sadly a few of the blogs need to be deleted. Not because they go beyond any of my standards of morality (hell I'm as imoral as the next guy) but because due to some personnal reasons those bloggers had to stop blogging. I just hope that I can stay mentally competent enough to leave a parting shot before departing this earth. Much like Charles Shultz before his departure. He did Peanuts until the day before he died.

And to Crum: Thanks for the motivation. Always need a springboard now and then. This post wasn't too long was it?

A strange little trick

I'm using an old laptop that one of the clan put together for about $25. Just love being cheap that way. I guess I take after Billy. Funny I have an uncle named Billy and he's just as cheap. But back to the trick. This little laptop has been running quite a bit and started to hang up so I stuck it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer overnight. Took it out and let it warm up for an hour. Poped it back in and everything seems fine so far. We'll see how long it lasts. You can't say I didn't get my money out of this thing.

Update: It looks like that is only a temporary fix in order to recover your data. After about an hour it was back to it's unfixed old self (hanging up and not loading pages. None the less it is still a neat trick if you keep important stuff on your computer. Back up you say. I don't need no stinking back up!

The depression is ...well depressing

So we've been in this economic "downturn" for what? 13 months now. When will they call it what it is? A depression.

I've been racking my brain about all of the survival techniques I've learned in the past. The problem. They've cut so many of the programs and pathways to survive this time around. Last time I was so desperate I took a trash bag and walked the length of our road collecting cans for recycle. There was a couple of bars down the road from me so the roadway was ripe for recycle. Now the road is four lane with sidewalks and not any cans and little trash. Used to be able to make a couple of bucks a day that way. Enough to buy groceries for the day at that time. Then there was the government cheese. Big 5lb. blocks that would last quite a while. That was Reagan " let them eat cheese" program. Don't know when they cut that You don't see the usual flock of latinos hanging out by the Home Depot. Even the temp day laborers are having a hard time. Then there's those at the upper end of the income scale. They are the ones who are really going to wake up to reality. They thought they had it made. They thought good times would last forever. That they could just cruise to retirement with a big house and vacation home and a couple of cars. What's that expression the bigger you are the harder you fall.

A job fair advertises a couple hundred jobs and 5000 people show up. I did that once back in the 70s. I won't bother doing that again. So all I can do now is sit and wait because there isn't diddly out there and there won't be until the eagle in DC takes a dump. They want to add more unemployment benefits in the stimilus. Hey I've got an idea. Forget the unemployment how about putting us to work. We're just sitting around looking at a bunch of empty job announcments and listening to our arteries harden. I thought about volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. Guess what? Their staff is full until summer.

Watching the stock market lately is kind of fun. It reminds me of the poker games we used to have back in days gone by. The money in the pot would go round and round from one player to another and nothing would really change. The money in the market goes from stocks to shorts to equity funds. And watch how it goes from the financials to the commodities and to the energy sector. It looks to me like money chasing a dream because it hasn't changed in over a year. So this is how wall street amuses itself while we sit here watching the dog and pony show. I laugh as they tout 'the housing bottom is here" then the next day it's "the banks are coming back".

I'm back

Well after a bit of computer problems I have returned. Thank goodness for some computer geeks in this clan. I had been using an old windoze machine for some posting and it went the way of Crums. So I'm back on an old mac (good and reliable) albeit a bit slow for my taste. I will say it's still easier and faster than any windoze machine. Now to catch up on the blog surfing and snarky comments. Later.

HEADLINES

A new feature here at the waste drum. My snark on today's headlines. Hope you enjoy.

At rest our brains run in screen saver mode
I know people who are awake in screensaver mode.

Whistleblower says Madoff had help, blasts SEC
No!? You think?

Democrats hunt for Republican support on stimulus
They'd have better luck finding gold.

Girl dies after being trapped in washing machine
Should have told her not to tease her brother. Now do we have to have childproof washers?

Cheney warns of new attacks
Is he doing a deal with Al Qaida? He'd probably sell arms to both sides just to make up for his lost retirement.

Rain-battered Austrailian state on snake alert
So that's where all the retired republicans go.

Car explosion injures head of Ark. medical board
Did he forget to pay his bookey?

Time to vote the rest of these bastards out

Once again the republicans are blocking anything that would actually help the little guy. That's you and me. Now they want to put big tax breaks for business their usual MO. We know what happens to the money when business gets tax cuts. More perks for CEOs and more to the bottom line with nothing going to the worker or his family. Wasn't it Henry Ford who realized that if his workers weren't making money that they couldn't buy the products that the company made?

Greedy bastards

You'll note that in this anaylasis that the republicans want business to get their overseas taxes lowered to 5%. That is if there's any business that actually pay any taxes. 60% of corporations in this country don't pay any taxes.

When disaster strikes

A couple of blogger got to talking about armageddon and our current economic depression. Some call it a recession but let's call it what it really is. A recession is when your neighbor looses his job. A depression is when you loose your job. Should the whole world implode there won't be much any of us can do about it. So let's look at the things we can prepare for and plan accordingly. I'm no survivalist ready to go out and hunt game for dinner but that doesn't mean I don't keep my own existance somewhere in the back of my mind. I think I could survive for at least a week or two in at least modest comfort with the basics of food shelter heat and light. Many things my sister taught me when she had a small farm years ago.

The biggest concern I would have would be for that 9.0 earthquake they've predicted for how many years. It really wouldn't be a matter of what resources are on hand for most but how they deal with the emotional issues. I seem to recall the Nisqually quake some years back. I was in full moon gear just ten miles from the epicenter on a job. It felt like sommeone lifted the place three feet off the ground and dropped it then shook it back and forth like they were using it to sift flour. A coworker at the time suggested we stand in a doorway for protection. We did and waited out the shaking. My attitude at the time was what I usually feel. Got all my arms and legs and other body parts intact so all is okay. I guess any day you're still breathing without injury is a good day in my business. Then of course you have the people who go around yelling like chicken littles that the end is near and they have to jump on the phone just to tie up the lines asking their neighbors what they were doing "when it hit". And all of this brings me to a rather interesting story or should I say actual event. Let me preface this. These are things we hear about while taking our annual recertification classes. It makes us think and evaluate our own abilities. The event below:

Four miners are trapped in a coal mine that had a cave in. Only one of the men has a wristwatch. They calculate that they will only have 12 hours of air to breath for the four of them. The man with the watch thinks to himself and comes up with a plan but doesn't tell the others. When the other guys ask what time it is the guy with the watch starts shaving time and tells them less time has passed than actually did. As the hours pass he continues with his trick. The rescuers finally reach the trapped miners several hours later. One of the miners is dead. Care to guess?..............The guy with the watch.

It should also be noted that more people are killed trying to rescue others than those that need rescued. Think about that the next time the fire department or search and rescue goes by.