Perform or Perish

Last evening a SF radio talk show host was decrying the new Congressional rule that will require all new legislation to be founded in the Constitution. It's about time this nation returned to the standards and morals that made our country great as embodied by the character Tell Sackett. Ever since those Progressives starting with Woodrow Wilson began subverting Constitutional Law for socialist reforms, people have lost their integrity and sense of personal responsibility.

Pull Your Own Freight!

Sawing Boat Seats 'cuz It's Raining Out

It took 2 weeks to find the right kind of vertical grain redwood delivered so now I've sawn it to size and have to get it planed at the neighbor cabinetmaker's shop. My good friend John Monahan who restores Falls Flyers has got me the original seat materials so I just need to finish the seat bottoms and backs. When restored it will be more like a piece of quality furniture than a boat ha ha.

Airplay Sites for New CD "Big Norm"

For those wanting access to hear airplay of Andy Calder's band "One Ton Pig" and their new release of Big Norm, visit the following sites. Jimmy Rabbitt plays blues, country, and rock with fun and knowledgeable banter from a DJ that enjoys his work.

Saturdays:
http://www.kociradio.com/-koci-programming/-the-jimmy-rabbitt-show.html

Most Tuesdays:
http://kafmradio.org/

Back to Cali for a Week of Work - aaarrrgh!

Back for a week of work at a local pipe mill for Chevron work - what a bunch of racket!!
I'm just glad it's only for a week, gotta get ready to enjoy Christmas with my son and his family.
And now I have a chance to get back to all my persoanl projects too.

Primed for Thanksgiving with Aleta's Family

After having brought my industrial grade mine dry washer blower to help with the leaves now I can relax!!!
The turkey fryer is cranked up and the stuffing is in the oven with stuffed sweet potatos on the stove and two pecan pies waiting in the wings. Aleta has decorated the dining room to look very festive.
And since the fryer is all set up I found a delicious recipe for fried crab cakes for supper...like I need to eat more tonight ha ha ha.

Leaves at Aleta's - Fall Colors PHOOEY!

So in order to earn my Thanksgiving dinner, I have to get all the leaves to the curb. While Aleta runs the leaf blower, my only reliable helper since she could walk has been Ella. My 'leaf plow' is more efficient than people anyway. This years efforts made a 4 ft high pile 10 ft wide and 120 ft long for the local vacuum truck.

And Bernanke Said There Was No Inflation????

Do You Ship For Christmas    
"Dear UPS Customer...

...Effective January 3, 2011, UPS Daily Rates will increase as follows: UPS Ground services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 5.9% increase in rates and a 1% reduction in the UPS Ground fuel surcharge; UPS Air and International services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 6.9% increase in rates and a 2% reduction in the UPS Air and International services fuel surcharge...

...In addition, effective January 3, 2011, the dimensional weight divisor used to calculate dimensional weight will change from 194 to 166 for domestic U.S. UPS Ground and Air services shipments, and from 166 to 139 for U.S.-origin export shipments..."

• That, incidentally, is a ~16% increase in price on dimensional weight packages. If your box is light and large, you're going to get reamed by 16%.

Too Much Excitement Right Now

St. Lucia Prime Minister Stephenson King told a local radio station that an American tourist drowned at Cas En Bas beach in the island’s north. St. Lucians were deluged by 21 hours of sustained rain starting Saturday morning. On Sunday, dead animals floated in swollen rivers and people in the capital of Castries took to streets to clear fallen branches, broken glass and other debris. High winds ripped the roofs off a hospital, a school and a stadium and blew a large concrete cross from the roof of a century-old church, officials said. A landslide blocked a main highway.

Back In Los Angeles...for a couple of weeks

I'm back from my cruise to Santa Rosa visiting a friend of 40 years and roommate for the year I was working pipeline construction in Richmond. I stopped here at the Coalinga off ramp to scratch my butt! I had to miss rain both coming and going so being back in sunny SoCal is fine.
I just got the Cherokee back from the trans shop-I don't do those. The painter should be by in a couple of days so that work can start...I'm not going to want to drive it, it'll be so new!!

Dateline Soggy Sonoma County, CA

Hanging out with the "sticks and twigs' granola crowd after 4 days of rain and 6 more to go gives me time to dwell on larger issues such as 'the rule of law'.

• A Calif. candidate for Governor is not prosecuting a proven felon immigrant housekeeper.
• The U.S. Attorney general is not prosecuting voter intimidation by Black Panthers.
• Homeland security is allowing multiple cases of manslaughter by illegal aliens including a nun to continue.
• There is no prosecution of the felonies of 'robo-signing' of mortgages which are overt lies to the courts.

Now what am I supposed to think, That all these are above the law. That our Chief Executive and Law Enforcement Officer is unable or unwilling to do his job. And I am supposed to vote for ANY incumbent. With the magnitude of collective myopic stupidity throughout this nation, the best I can do is to NOT PARTICIPATE!

Supremely Stupid Economics-Ben again

Helicopter Ben Bernanke is going to do another QE flood of money out of the presses. How can we buy our own Treasury Notes when we're in debt???

The most important "restriction on investment spending" today is that all the customers are up to their freaking eyeballs in debt, staggering under the crushing weight of debt from two insane decades of the loathsome Alan Greenspan at the demonic Federal Reserve constantly creating more and more money to finance bubble economies in raw, naked consumption, insane speculative bubbles in stocks, bonds, houses, derivatives and the cancer-like growth of a treacherous, corrupt system of governments, from local to state to federal, as trillions and trillions of dollars were deficit-spent to add to the orgiastic deluge of tax revenues already pouring in, and then going right back out again as new spending, from the aforementioned bubble economies in stocks, bonds, houses and derivatives spawned by, at the root, the Federal Reserve creating the money necessary!

Back From Aleta's and Continuing the Jeep Rebuild

Now that I've returned to LA I can continue my Jeep project. I have completed the transfer case reseal and installation. The damn thing is HEAVY to stuff back in on my back. I appreciate Cole's help. Now I have the drive shaft out and it's getting all new u-joints. The license and insurance is all ready to go. Maybe I can haul all of Aleta's remaining 'stuff' to her on the 'maiden voyage' ha ha. I am now waiting for the drawings for a new pipeline project. The project may start as soon as Thanksgiving??? Work aarrggh!

Aleta's New Sewer

This is the MAIN reason I came to visit and I've been arm wrestling with the township sewer authority...they've fired their engineer and office help while losing buckets of $$$ and nobody knows what they're doing.
We got the inspector to buy off the installation. Now I just have to get rid of the little shed and two big logs for the mill. Then I can schedule the yard re-grading to the tune of about 180 cubic yards of dirt and install an automatic sprinkler system sourced from the old well for free water.

Rockabilly Hot Rods

The locals brought out their toys this weekend.

Brother and I Visiting B&O Museum w/Grandkids

Philip is very excited to be in a real steam locomotive and they even have operating sounds. My brother is visiting from MN by way of Virginia and so we've gone down to Baltimore to see a very impressive museum

Tree Work In PA

Now that I've made it to Aleta's and she has found a few thinigs for me to do... A 60+ mph wind knocked down a couple of trees that I have to dispose of. In the meantime, I chase Ella and Philip around in the yard and through the woods - coincidentally checking for poison ivy.

Went Through PA to Get to MN

I only got to spend a day with Aleta and the kids. I had to get to MN for the HS reunion. And now Byron has me mowing and anything else that comes to mind.
The reunion was fun and interesting, having found Gary one of our 'three musketeers'. We now have our cousins from Florida on their way here for the 4th of July, a case of high-density Smith's.
I expect to be leaving early next week for CA to see Cole and his family and to get my laptop repaired.

Toys At My Brother's

Heh, heh, heh, I get to ride a motorcycle while I'm visiting! And there is no room for sidecar riders unless they scrunch up as that is where all the beer is!! 

It's Time to Start Packing

The rainy seasson has arrived and after three months of total inactivity it's time for me to go install Aleta's sewer hookup + her list of other stuff after I get back from my HS reunion. And oh by the way....pester two grandkids who I hope missed me as much as I missed them!

This Guy Is Pissed (his words)

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help you"

This particular small incident (BP) in the total panoply of destruction to our economy comes in the form of oil headed for the coasts and some of the most beautiful beaches in the United States, not to mention important fish hatcheries and habitat.

The other parts came in other places. A destroyed housing market, two financial bubbles in a row in 10 years time, eight million Americans out of work, 20+ million illegal invaders in this nation that our government refuses to expel (or, for that matter, let the states expel), backdating deposits at banks, bogus balance sheets, hinky derivative deals, bribed state and local officials in our cities and states, an actual honest-to-god Depression that is being "evaded" by borrowing trillions from the Chinese (who are then driving their people so hard they kill themselves out of desperation) and much more.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

Geithner Is Our Casey Jones

And Obama is the the conductor! Geithner says spend, spend, spend, and President Obama wants another $50 Billion because his 'Spendulous' is running out of steam???  Our debt is 87% of our entire Gross Domestic Product!  And that does not even count the $145 BILLION that Fannie and Freddie are in hock for.  They are all hoping that housing prices are going up -yeah right!

What ever happened to the jobs thing?  Unemployed people do not pay taxes, they consume them.  I WAS a rocket scientist...with stuff on the shuttle, and I can tell you this is NOT rocket science.

Aftermath Musings

The federal government has launched a criminal probe into the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. All well and good. But it invariably begs the question as to why, some three years after the start of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, there have been ZERO criminal investigations launched by Justice against Wall Street. The contrast is striking.

http://ampedstatus.com/hotlist.php

OK, OK, I Agree With An Oil Drilling Moratorium

So I have finally come around to agree that all the eco-nuts from California enviromentalists to Philippe Cousteau, including 'peak oil' people are right. We need dramatic legislation that will:

• End all offshore drilling & exploration.
• Forbid any refining of non-American crude in American continental refineries.
• Forbid the importation of foreign refined products including byproducts like plastics.

This will mandate reliance on the myriad of 'Green' technologies that are our collective salvation. This will also expedite the development Chinese and Indian infrastructure reliant on petrochemicals.

Memorial Day Weekend

Honoring the Nations Rule of Law, our National Guard, and the integrity of Arizona's government.

And On A Lighter Side...Fresh Conch

I am going all out for dinner tonight. Conch ceviche for appetizers followed by big slabs, tenderized, and pan fried  in butter.
I drove my neighbor to the fish market for some freshly butchered Bigeye Tuna aka ahi. That's next for the menu

NYMag - Heileman: "Wall Street executives are a bunch of raving lunatics"

“Today, it’s hard to find anyone on Wall Street who doesn’t speak of Obama as if he were an unholy hybrid of Bernie Sanders and Eldridge Cleaver. One night not long ago, over dinner with ten executives in the finance industry, I heard the president described as ‘hostile to business,’ ‘anti-wealth,’ and ‘anti-capitalism’; as a ‘redistributionist,’ a ‘vilifier,’ and a ‘thug.’"

And more insights as to why Wall Street AND gummint are ALL a bunch of crooks. http://baselinescenario.com/2010/05/26/wall-street-ceos-are-nuts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BaselineScenario+%28The+Baseline+Scenario%29

Rachel Maddow is a Provocateur

The Constitution provides for equal opportunity under the law. I completely agree with this.

Maddow in her interview with Rand Paul she asks if he favors businessmen discriminating "...on the basis of a characteristic that they didn't like as a private business owner."  She alludes to race in a race-baiting manner when in fact one could consider Starbucks Coffee is discriminating against tea drinkers or juice bar patrons.

Merriam-Webster defines discriminating as the ability to perceive peculiar features.

If you choose to not discriminate I do not think I wish to know you much less consider you a friend. If you choose to not exercise your ability to tell the difference between good and evil, good workmanship versus bad, or any other host of daily decisions that make you a competent judge of life around you, then you are a waste of humanity.

The Federal Government Is Not Enforcing Our Immigration Laws

And that is what fosters vigilanteeism:

Gheen of ALPAC: "Over the last couple days, Obama and the chief of ICE have refused to honor their oaths of office," he said. "Their constitutional requirement is to enforce existing laws".

Gheen said the 17 states where some form of immigration crackdown is under development include Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

For an Article by Article reference to Mexico's tough immigration laws worth emulating, visit here:
http://theuniversalseduction.com/special/mexicos-immigration-law-lets-try-it-here-at-home

The Morning Sea Breezes

The morning breezes have been real brisk from the storms off Barbados. They don't even let up at night and any mosquitoes that get caught out get blown through the screens. In the morning there are all these dead  wingless bugs on the floor and wings in the screens.

"This Is a Hangout of Mine"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ7sYvYexAs

Great Sunrises Here

I love this east side of the island.  Anyone can see a sunset. Since I have to get my tile work done and I like my bottle of Piton by about 2 pm when it's 85 degrees +, I start when it's light. After my coffee that is.

And You Thought TSA Was Bad????

• He couldn't make a bomb right in the first place??

The SUV was rigged with a homemade gasoline-and-propane bomb that didn't go off on Saturday night.
Each of the 36 M88 fireworks bought by the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, at the Matamoras showroom near the New York border has pyrotechnic powder equal in size to less than a sixth of an aspirin, according to officials.

• Law enforcement couldn't follow him??

They initially planned to arrest him at his Connecticut home but lost track of him, two people familiar with the probe told the AP.

• Airport security was going to let him leave??

Emirates airlines also didn't initially notice when Shahzad purchased a ticket that he had been placed on the government's no-fly list, according to a law enforcement official.

The Sunday Funnies - My Version

Idyllic Islands

Don't let one of these land on your head - they hurt!
I am not very fond of coconut milk but I really enjoy the fresh meat.

Tighten the Reins 'til You See Blood

Dateline April 25, 2010- Auction Rate Preferred Wreckage YET!  http://www.auctionratepreferreds.org/

To date, almost 60% of the outstanding auction-rate securities have been redeemed.

With more than $25 billion still outstanding, some closed-end-fund sponsors have been refinancing the outstanding auction-rate securities aggressively to provide liquidity to the holders.

I was sold ARPS over two years ago that were represented to be a 'liquid investment' equivalent to a money market. It took my broker EIGHT MONTHS to offload this crap - just another case of Wall Street deceit.
 
Don't let ANY Senator off the hook for full Wall Street transparency and disclosure!

Blatant Hypocrasy Across the Board

So today Senator Levin has put Goldman-Sachs in the Congressional hotseat. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Let's look at the litany of miscreants that ALL contributed to our economic collapse:

• Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act - Clinton/Rubin 1998
• SEC employees surfing porn sites instead of digging out the truth of CDO's
• Wishful would-be homebuyers signing for liars loans and on and on...

Now we can see where all of this leads...

There Were "Progressives" for the Last Centrury

Even in 1957 Atlas Shrugged references the blight of "progressives" on society -

"By that time it was too late. ...the freight cars were in California, where the soybeans had been sent to a progressive concern made up of sociologists preaching the cult of Oriental austerity, and of businessmen formerly in the numbers racket.  In Minnesota, farmers were setting fire to their own farms, they were demolishing grain elevators,and the homes of county officials because their wheat could not move...

Lack of Enforcement by The Chief Executive

President Obama: "That is why I feel so strongly that we need to enact a set of updated, commonsense rules to ensure accountability on Wall Street and to protect consumers in our financial system."

You are not enforcing existing laws and have allowed others to be recinded, Mr. President!
Why is not the Attorney General prosecuting bankers, mortgage lenders, appraisers and Real Estate agents where felonious conduct has taken place? Investment houses, auto manufacturers, and a whole host of hangers-on received 1.5 trillion taxpayer dollars because exisitng laws have not been enforced. The repeal of Glass-Steagall undermined a fifty year old safe system and Hank Paulson expedited the removal of the 14:1 leverage rule when he moved from Goldman-Sachs to Treasury. Those of you who elected the last three Presidents and their henchmen, Rubin, Paulson, Holder, and their entourages are just getting what you deserve. You are no different than AIG with your oversized house, oversized SUV, and oversized credit cards.

De'ja Vu All Over Again

There was a curious juxtaposition yesterday evening when CNN aired a program showing Detroit's deterioration followed by India's economic woes of inflation. All of this while I was re-reading Atlas Shrugged where the mother of Hank Rearden of Rearden Steel is begging for a job for her other son and Hank turned her down because he was worthless...and the People's Republic of Mexico had just nationalized a worthless copper mine.

She said "If you loved your brother, you'd give him a job he didn't deserve, precisely because he didn't deserve it - that would be true love and kindness and brotherhood. Else what is love for? If a man deserves a job, there is no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is the giving of the undeserved."

This is true moral bankruptcy!

Finally A ChanceTo Update

I feel like Howard Hughes in Nassau - just without the bankroll or entourage. The rainy season started a month early but at least the wind is back and there are no Virgin Airlines 'heavies' (747) taking off for Europe - ash clouds...Because of my damaged laptop display and poor internet service, I've finished Ludlum's "Parsifal Mosaic". Now I'm starting a re-read of "Atlas Shrugged". With a 20 year space it is patently obvious that a 35 year old story did not enlighten anyone! Ayn Rand even used the term 'progressives' then for the looters.

No Financial "material" Impact - Ha Ha Ha

I know, Obama has said that there would be no "material" impact to finances until 2014.
Liar.

Truth: Caterpillar and John Deere already announced non-cash charges of $100 and $150 million, respectively, for this year based upon the impact of this bill on forward retiree health care costs.
But today a 100-kiloton device landed on AT&T's (NYSE: T) balance sheet - they announced a one billion dollar non-cash charge.

Now tell me you think that these companies are going to pay this out of the kindness of their hearts and their own pockets and to hell with the shareholders??? Or are they going to pass this along as higher consumer costs?

Yes, you are going to have your healthcare but you cost-of-living is accompanied by a giant flushing sound.

I Really DO Work......Occasionally

This is the pipe yard looking out to San Jacinto Mountain.

I am still getting in my 2 or 3 days a week, now as a consultant to Aleta's company. It's weird having my daughter for a boss. I just sent 6 packages to my accountant for all the family and their business's. And I'm wrapping up a whole bunch of other details so I can leave for St. Lucia in 2 weeks for 4 months. The mining company has been 're-aligned' to a family business under Cole's guidance. I'm free at last, free at last!

Family Visit 2010

Aleta with Ella and Philip came to SoCal for a two week visit. I think that uncle Cole was outmatched by the mini-Jedi. Great fun was had by all including me with continuous fun and mayhem at the Orchard House interspersed by four count 'em 4 visits to Disneyland.

Our Amerian Hertitage - a gentle reminder

The Tenth Amendment of our American Constitution -

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I believe it is time for the citizens of America to hit the Federal Reset Button. This country was not made great by people receiving handouts...they did it all by themselves! I want the Federal Government to do their job and only their job. Then we can all do ours with honest rewarding work.

Remembering...

When Aleta first talked to me about marrying Phil I said that only if we become one big family because after raising them for almost 3 decades I could never really let them go. Phil and his family were and are a wonderful family to have joined. Three days before Phil took Ella and I for a plane ride around the neighborhood. It was the last I saw him and he enjoyed it as much as we did.

Work, Work, Work

So there is was happily getting greasy building my new motor. Actually I was putting the new parts together and I got a call for few days of real work for last week and this week. In between I have finished and installed the motor - now it RUNS! Here is before and after:

The Haitian Dichotomy--and I have no good answer!

Now that we have a handle on the immediate rescue problem we need to look at the long view. From a construction point of view, economics plays an important role. I have witnessed island construction of concrete block buildings that I could see daylight through what should have been mortar joints. There was no rebar and the concrete was inferior because of insufficient cement. There are no building codes in place and corruption is suspect. And this is prevalent throughout the Caribbean nations.
Where to draw the line between safe construction and over-building is difficult. When hurricanes or earthquakes destroy buildings, the new construction does provide new jobs in a poor economy. But when the economy is inadaquate to provide quality materials and competent workmanship, the results will be inferior. The salt air rots steel construction but rust-proof paint or galvanizing costs extra-no immediately visible benefits. And the replacement a couple years later provides work.
There are a variety of considerations to take into account: the involvement of knowledgeable foreign business with guarantees of investment return. Also the education and training of contractors and their workers and the implementation of building codes. And last but not least, motivation of the population with less emphasis on religous superstition and voodoo and a better work ethic.

I Question This Country's Security Concerns

Executive Order 13440 of July 20, 2007, is revoked -dated January 9, 2009. "...in order to improve the effectiveness of human intelligence gathering..." WHAT!!

The intelligence team and it's authority have been removed and not replaced in over a year. So this country has no authority to question the Christmas Day bomber??? I think that we had better start to be concerned over this nations security and how this administration is (not) handling it.

Motorhead Progress

Now that I have finished my motor rebuild I figured I had to give it a nice new home to flex it's 330 hp muscles. It's nice to be able to get in and work on things in a real full-size truck-not SUV.