Short Prairie Clip

 

I have developed a fascination for things that move on the high plains.  This recent video is a contrast between two different types of energy sources.  Note that not all things are not moving or spinning.  Things malfunction/break, hence they stop.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eQPFdYgDVw

The area has become a mini energy center.  There are wind turbines that stretch for about 35 miles and 8-15 miles wide.  The oil filed is even a larger swath across the grassland but it is spotted.  The oil wells are not as large as the wind turbines nor do they look as obnoxious.  Then that’s my opinion.  But both are a blight on what was once a pristine pastoral farm and ranch land. 

A New State…… 51st State Imitative

 

There is a group in Colorado that has started talking about forming a new state from some counties in Eastern Colorado.  They are dissatisfied with the policies that have been coming out of the state capital.  Many of the new policies from the state house have had a negative impact on the people of rural Colorado, which is where the dissent is. 

The majority of people live along the Front Range of Colorado, about 70% and they tend to control the state legislature.  Like so many in the city they lose contact with their roots and ignore the country folk.  It has created lots friction between the country people and city slickers. 

There is a liberal axis of power along the Denver/Boulder corridor.  Denver has not had a Republican mayor, US representative in decades.  The Democrats have ruled Denver for years and the same is true in Boulder, the home of the University.

The governor of Colorado is the former mayor of Denver and very liberal.

Recently the state legislature passed a bill mandating that all rural electric Co-Op’s but 30% of their electricity from green energy sources, IE’ wine turbines.  The Co-ops wanted input ot the process as did other rural people.  The Democrats locked them out, had a closed door meeting and brought forth the bill.  Afterwards, there were commercials galore, mocking the rural people that hey would have to be green.  That did not set well in the outlying areas.

Another area of contention has been the use of fracing for gas and oil wells.  The liberals have contended that fracing pollutes and that the chemicals are toxic.  So the county of Boulder banned fracing in their county.  A recent government study shows that fracing does not cause ground water contamination.  The liberals ignored this and still deride the oil and gas industry.

Then there is the issue of taxes.  Colorado has a law stating that all tax increases are to go to the voters for approval.  The democrats have been stymied for years with this.  So they now use fees to generate new taxes.  They have added all kinds of fees onto the oil and gas industry plus agriculture.  These fees are difficult to pass on in higher prices yet at the gas pump one can see some of the jumps in prices from added taxes…. oops…. fees.  Recently the US Supreme Court ruled that any revenue the government collects is a tax.  No one has challenged the Colorado fees.

These factors along with other issues have many a person in the rural areas upset and see no hope for relief from the over bearing policies of the Democrats that control the Colorado State House.  Therefore their solution is a divorce from the Colorado Democrats, form a new state.

One thing to consider is lots of the laws that have been passed by the Democrats have been penalties on rural Colorado, which tends to vote Republican. 

Those of you that have read “Atlas Shrugged,” know who John Gault is.  Forming a new state is a type of John Gault, leaving the morass. 

Yet look at all of the benefits one could have by forming a new state.  Yes it would take lots of work, arguing and thought.

Are you thinking about the plethora of things that could happen in a new state.  Oh joys, hand springs a return to sensibilities. 

The constitution is pretty well outlined, make a few additions and then carefully draft laws that would be difficult to change, for there will always be those who do not like things and want to change them.

Write the tax code in such a way it can be understood by all, limit what can be taxed, ear mark taxes for specific projects, put in sunset laws for taxes, and the list goes on.

Sunset law is a crucial piece of the new constitution.  For ordinances  do not need to have a life of eternity, they can be renewed by congress otherwise they expire.  Look how many laws are on the books now that are meaningless.  There are some laws that are good for a year or a few, then they should fade into non existence.  Same with taxes, there were many special; project taxes that ushered forth and the project is over but the tax is still there. 

Then develop a bureaucracy that would be responsive to people it is to serve.  For a small group can control the state departments and manipulate power.  Regulations are written by the different agencies and here is where the abuse of power is great.  Make all regulations reviewable by the legislature before ii is put into effect.

Just pausing and contemplating all the facets one can work with becomes mind boggling.  Hopefully if it happens the people that work on it won’t have big egos and are benign. 

I’ll probably pull this blog out a later date and add some things to it and post a few thoughts I hear from others.

Headlines

 

Ronal Regan was called the teflon President, because they said nothing stuck to him.  Obama is going to have to be called the kelvar president, for he hasn’t even been wounded by the bullets that have been hurled at him.

There was Benghazi, then the IRS and NSA plus the economy is sour.  There are other smaller bullets flying but they seem to fall on the ground.  Lots of talk but very little action.

Each week different stories are brought up but not much happens.  Read where the people at Benghazi had to sign non=disclosure statements.  That in and of itself is an indictment of the administration that said it would be transparent.  So much for being forthcoming to the public they are supposed to serve.

Crooks, tend to hide behind mis-directed statements and twist things to give themselves favorable light. 

How many people have you heard of being fired from the IRS?  There should have been no question about terminating the people that violated the trust of the public.  There should have been suspension of pay for numerous administrators in the IRS.  If there are no consequences to the people that abused their position in the IRS, what is to prevent others from doing the same.

The NSA stuff, one can lay at the feet of Bush.  It came from the Patriot Act passed after 9/11.  Then the Republicans voted to continue the Act just a few years ago.

The Patriot Act, almost gives the administration dictatorial powers.  It is probably one scariest pieces of legislation Congress has ever passed.  Look how the present President has abused this power.

The most visible part of this was the TSA people in the airports and look how many of them mis-behaved.

Yet the president lets things roll along, by saying nothing he consents to these different abuses of the public he was elected to serve.

Right now a race war is on the back burner.  So far has been calm, but for how long.

What is really sad is how many Democrats are in denial of how their President is mis-behaving.

Yes, kelvar president is pretty good.

Oh ….. For Frustrations

 

Projects become time consumers when the best of laid plans fail.  Great aspirations rode on the wings of hope.  The elements were laid out, a nice outline was made.  Together the pieces would make a nice tableau.  Some of the bits were stored over there, and some in here and the rest were scattered, in easy reach.

The moment arrived, the parts were to be gathered up and assembled.  Into the puter they were placed.  Delicate care was given to each.  Embellishments were added.  No parts left dangling.  Some time later the project was completed. 

The next phase begins.  The files are to be uploaded.  Wind the puter up, put the file name in the little box, sit back, let the bits and pieces be crunched into a whole.

Later the sum of the parts is completed.  The crunching is done, the verdict is in.  The puter at the other end says I have problems.  I sort through, see them and say, Okay, they are fixable. 

I go back through, gathering up new parts to replace the non acceptable pieces.  Time paces, the new bits are ready.  I delete and I replace, a whole new assembly is created.  To the upload page I go.  Into the window the file name is entered and the crunching process begins again.

Sometime later the crunching is finished.  Oh happy day, it is completed.  Then I see them, the little red dots.  I have issues it say.  I examine the issues, they are not major, I can fix them, just very time consuming.  A bit of steam ushers forth from the nostrils, it is becoming frustrating.

Again I go through patch and repair.  Go back and upload again and await the results.  Oops, it spits little red dots back at me.  harumph, more steam is rolling out of the nostrils, a bit of flame is rolling overhead.  I have to go through the process again, frustrations are building but I fix and redo things.

This learning curve is becoming a monster, I need to get a handle on things.  There in the little box is red letters, save and go on.  I click and everything is okay, all is great.  But I am not happy.  The changes have made other problems that need to be straightened out.  I go back redo things, check the files, make some more changes.  I am satisfied.  All the bits and pieces are where they should be.  I go to the upload page and put the file in.  The puiter sits there, crunching pieces and bits, sending them through cyber space. 

I check back, an error message is in the window, task was not completed.  I check things, see nothing wrong.  I try again, bleep the window say.  Whoops the ceiling is scorched from the flames issuing forth from the cranial structure.  I go back through and send a nasty note to the people at the other end, nothing.

I redo things again, put a little twist on and reload.  Voila, it is uploaded but with numerous red dots.  I click the ignore button and finish the project.  Humbug, a project that should of taken no more then two days, got stretched out over 8 days.  I did learn how to get mad at the other end and how to fix things. 

There are other projects on the drawing board, hopefully the will not be as fraught with these problems.

Such is the life of mice and me.

Monies

 

Some of the oil boom has hit this area.  There derricks growing in fields and pastures and occasionally they morph into pumps.  Most of it has been on state land or railroad land.  Few individuals have wells on their property.  It sure does touch off the conversations though.  Hear lots of envy and jealousy and the greedy ones get real mouthy. 

Was watching an old show other day.  It was about them getting an oil well and maybe more on their land.  It was old, oil was $12.00 a barrel.  They were talking about their well being 1000 barrels a day.  Compute that times $12.00…… whoa…. whole bunch of money.  Then they said there should be 5 more wells…. $12.00 X 1000 X 5 =…. mega bucks…. per day of $60,000.00 a day.  Now what the cost is to produce that is, I have no idea but I doubt it is over 50%. 

The banks get real excited over numbers like that and lend money big time.  The greed crawls out in capitol letters. 

Now re do the  numbers for today.  A low producing well, 100 barrels a day at $65.00 a barrel = $6500 a day.  Makes a real nice cash flow yet one can see why the oil biz is so big.

Yet the question begs, why is gas so expensive?  Lots has to do with our attitude and the way we consume.  We drive way to fast most of the time, like jack rabbits and we also drive big ol boats that get poor mileage plus our toys, just go riding and ATV to the joy of it or cruising on a boat.  We consume lots of gas just for the pleasure of it.

There is also the other uses of petroleum products beside gasoline.  Plastics is a big user, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.  Plastics are petroleum based as is some synthetic materials.  All the new techie toys are plastic cases and lens.  Beverage bottles are plastic.

We consume ourselves into higher prices, in part. 

When I see new wells pumping, I see plastic bags floating, plastic bottles floating, plastic machines whirring and plastic phones ringing.

 

So if you think there is a bit of conspiracy in price gouging, there is a bit of accuracy.  There is also lots of over consumption and market demand for convenience.

Now how do I find an oil well for myself.  Oh I have to work, get some money, buy some land with oil buried on it.  Sounds pretty easy, just go out in the back yard and dig up some cans of money.

Weather Demons….. swooooosh

 

Past couple of weeks the weather has been fabulous.  Temps have been in the mid 80’s, occasional clouds and some rain showers.  Person couldn’t ask for weather much better.  Nights cool off to the upper 50’s, making nice sleeping.  Be nice if it would stay that way the rest of the summer.  We are heating up again, temps climbing just over 90 degrees, getting close to uncomfortable warm. 

Spring did not show up until the middle of June though.  We were cold and windy in April and May.  Storms would boil up and the wind would howl sending dust devils all over.  Clouds of dust would obscure the sun until the rain followed behind the winds and the dust would settle back down.  We have had some good moisture lately so the winds are not kicking up the dust any more.

Yet, through all this the weather pattern has not been the same.  I read the other day that the big earthquakes had upset the GPS system by a minuscule  fraction.  To bring it back into precision would take lots of recalibrating of the satellites and the various transponders.  Engineers are very precise people.  Apparently the earths shift did not affect the navigation capacity for the personal GPS gadgets. 

Yet I got to thinking, if there was a shift in the earth, even a tiny one, it would affect the weather.  I had heard talk that the earth’s axis had tilted some because of the quakes and people were talking about haw things were now in sun or shade where they hadn’t been before. 

I began to watch, and there was a slight difference in how the sun came up and where it set.  Nothing major, but slightly discernable.  Then the slow arrival of spring this year made me wonder.

If the earth has tilted, even a 100th of a degree, weather patterns will change.  The biggest influence on out weather is the sun and if it is striking the land differently, it will effect the weather.

Have not heard or read anything about the earth’s shift but this story about fixing the GPS system.

In the great climate debate there has been no mention of this.  Yet an axis tilt will have more impact on the climate then anything man can do.  So has there an axis tilting of the earth?  This soul would like to know.

With all of the distortions and lies, hopefully some day scientists can get back to the facts and off the political feed trough and be real in life.

 

Have you heard or read anything about a shift in the earths tilt, movement?

Reverse Move on the Main

Off With Their Heads

 

During revolutions, this was a familiar cry.  It was a fairly common practice against political enemies.  The ruling class would also use beheading as a way to control their populace.  It is a macabre practice of man, to chop off the head of another.  Yet in the political ring over the centuries, beheading was a fairly regular practice.

Imagine what it would have been like if it was still used by politicians today.  After what the IRS, EPA, NSA and others have done.  Today rolling heads is a figure of speech, yet there probably will be a few bureaucrats that will feel the axe when all is said and done.

As we celebrate the day in Independence in the USA, consider the French revolution.  When the ruling party was ousted in France, beheading of the former rulers became a public display.  The guillotine was a French invention and the French used it on their former rulers. 

Yet after what the government agencies did to the Republicans, in particular the Tea Parties, they beheaded them.  The IRS was adroit in chopping off heads of opposition.  Wonder what kind of outcry there would be if the Tea Party people wanted to guillotine them?

Doubt if there would be any deterrence of behavior on the part of the government bureaucrats.  Laws only provide consequences for behaviors, that seldom successful in deterring behavior.  About all capital punishment does is remove people from society.

So what kind of punishment should there be for these government screw ups, those that abused their power.  Ruling out head chopping…. a bit to gruesome. 

Every time I think about the ballet about John the Baptist, I shudder a bit.  Yet beheadings are still common today, in certain parts of the world.

Seen a video, some time back, it was about capital punishment.  It showed hanging, lethal injection, firing squads, guillotine and other forms of taking another's life.  The guillotine was gruesome. the head bounced out of the basket and rolled into the crowd.  Never seen so many jumping and bug eyed.

With all these ugly forms of punishment, people still do not stop.  Ever wonder why people continue to commit crimes or heinous acts?