A few problems

Better late than never. We were all set to do
a post earlier today until we got busy with
something else. I cannot believe I’ve forgotten
that much about Ohm’s Law.

Now that the problem is well on its way to being
solved we thought we’d look at another one. We
realize it isn’t real warm in Wisconsin but are
at a loss as to why so many protesters have been
homesteading the Capital building for so long.

This fact lead us to the following conclusions:

At least some of the protesters must have been bused
in from a part of our country that is experiencing
global warming. This would explain their reluctance
to go out into the weather.

At least some of the protesters must be unemployed.
We say this because if they had jobs we’re sure they
would rather stay in motel at night instead of on
the cold marble floor of the statehouse. A motel
would also give them access to a shower.

At least some of the protesters must not have any
friends in Madison. We say this for the same reasons
employed people would get a motel room, except real
friends would also offer you a home cooked meal.

And at least some of the protesters must not have
gotten the memo that no vote can be taken on their
issue due to the AWOL Democrats, or that they aren’t
getting much news coverage.

And some aren’t using your common sense either
because those of us who have to work are wondering
how you can travel to another state and protest for
two weeks without an income.

But please exercise your rights to protest how bad
you have it. The problem you are having is the
average American taxpayer isn’t buying the bull you
are shipping.
Comments are always welcome.

Odds and ends

If you have a chance, the new season of ‘My Classic
Car’ starts today and airs at 9 am on Speed. As we
mentioned earlier this episode is supposed to have
coverage of last years Torquefest on it.

Had you attended the event in Farley, Iowa you
would know that the parking area was a lake until
late in the day due to torrential rains the previous
evening. It was still a blast and we will attend
this years event in Maquoketa on April 29-30.

Yesterday we attended our Car Club breakfast for the
first time in ages. We were surprised the other
members remembered us because we hadn’t been at any
functions lately due to scheduling conflicts.

It was the first time we’d eaten at the West
Kimberly HyVee and we have to admit we like it.
The wife had the special while I tried the biscuits
and gravy. I can’t speak for her breakfast, but I
really enjoyed mine.

A few commenters mentioned our Mayor and his like
of the camera. He does appear opinionated and has
no fear of expressing his. One we noticed was over
the proposed AmTrac that our President seems so
fond of.

We remember hearing our Mayor saying how nice it
would be to board the train here and be in Chicago
in an hour. Why that would enable people to live
here and work in Chicago.

That must be one fast express train to get there
that fast, and we believe an exaggeration. We can
hardly wait for the press release when the pothole
patching starts again.
Comments are always welcome.

The real reason

If you are married this may sound familiar. Let’s say
you’re at the Mall with your wife, see a pretty girl,
and grin. Usually it doesn’t end well but us guys just
can’t help ourselves.

It isn’t that we’re gluttons for punishment, I believe
the real culprit lies with the way the two sexes think.
The women in our lives assume they know what we
are thinking at such times but I say they have been
misinformed.

It isn’t always the same trigger that makes us grin
as we gawk and it could be something the ladies
haven’t even considered.
I offer the following in my defense:

When a woman wears leather clothing,
a man’s heart beats quicker,
his throat gets dry,
he goes weak in the knees,
and he begins to think irrationally.

Ever wonder why?

scroll down…

Because she smells like a new truck!
Comments are always welcome.

State things

olsons_observations_Feb_24_2011[1]

Since the global warming snow emergency didn’t happen
due to lack of interest, we have a little free time to share
another post.

We receive newsletters and some get our attention
a little quicker than others. One such release
came to us from Steven N. Olson, State Representitive
from the 83rd District of Iowa. We will mention a
few things that caught our eye and have a link to
the PDF file containing the information.

In his 16 page release titled ‘Olson’s Observations’
we found page 5 to be noteworthy. Listed under the
Commerce banner is a section called ‘Has the
Massachusetts Health Plan Failed?’. If it has indeed
failed, and it is what Obamacare was based on, we
have to wonder if the healthcare will be as good as
promised.

On page 7 we found in the FY2012 budget Obama has
released to Congress that our President has no
intention of curbing his spending. It appears his
answer to our education problem is cubic money.

On page 9 under the ‘Human Resources’ banner is
the heading ‘Illinois budget proposal poses challenges
to Iowa’s Medicaid system’.

Page 10 list bills discussed in subcommittee. And
page 11 mentions how Iowa legislators feel about
collective bargaining.

Page 13 concerns the right to self-defense and the
use of deadly force with a weapon. And page 15 is
about Veteran’s Affairs.

Of course there is more in the newsletter, these
are just some issues that we felt interesting enough
to persue.
Comments are always welcome.

A few things

It looks like Friday is going to be devoted to
getting all the global warming off our walks,
driveway, and alley. Because of this we’re going
to do this post early.

We received word that the first new episode of ‘My
Classic Car’ will air Sunday, Feb. 27, at 10 am
eastern time. This is supposed to be the one
that covers last year’s Torquefest.

Saturday and Sunday, February 26 & 27, 2011
is the 42nd Annual Rod & Custom Indoor Car Show
held at 766 N Maple St, (Berndes Center), in
Monticello, Iowa. Hours are noon to midnight
Saturday and 8 am to 8 pm Sunday.

The first cruise-in of the year is getting closer
every day. It isn’t until April 23rd so there is
plenty of time to plan to make it. Held at SouthPark
Mall in Moline, Illinois.

There is also a variety of races on tv to choose
from. If nothing else we can plan our shoveling
around the tv schedule.

Now we’re going to get a few hours sleep so we can
keep up with the snowfall.
Comments are always welcome.

Obama rant

Just when we think we understand the game the
rules get changed. With recent events we also
don’t pretend to know what is going to happen,
only that we live in interesting times.

Disclaimer: If you are a liberal you should
read no further unless you have had a recent
check-up from a doctor. This post may cause
heart palpitations or worse.

Recent actions of our President have lead us
to believe that the conservative talk show hosts
may be on to something. Since we don’t consider
Obama to be naive or crazy, the only other reason
for his actions has to be to divide our country
and he is pandering for future votes.

We don’t think Obama is the type who believes
that just because there are checks left in the
checkbook we have money. As a result of such
reasoning we have to think that he is trying
to redistribute the wealth and weakening our dollar
on purpose.

We don’t buy the bull that Obama doesn’t know that
the affairs of any one state are none of his business.
Of course he is behind the public unions, after all,
they contributed tens of millions of dollars to his
campaign.

We also don’t buy his ‘it’s not about me’ speech. His
recent statement that HE doesn’t think the Defense of
Marriage Act is constitutional and his administration
will not defend it proves it is about him. HE does
not have to power to issue such an order.

He mentions these things while saying nothing about the
fact that he hasn’t done anything about unemployment,
the deficit, the implosion of the Middle East, or running a
more civil government.

And we also haven’t heard who’s paying for the recent
migration of politicians to Illinois. If they chose
not to debate the issues but instead fled like spoiled
children who didn’t get their way, then they should
pay and not taxpayers. They should not get paid for
the days they miss either.

These are the people who claim to be role models. We
certainly hope they’re wrong. But they are the best
that money can buy.
Comments are always welcome.

Oscar as a mascot

We found this picture of an Ostrich online and
thought it would be a good beginning for a post.
Being an American who sometimes marches to a
different drummer it just made sense.

Those who stop by this blog often know our political
leanings, and those who don’t will after reading
this post.

In a gesture of bi-partisanship, and because of
recent political outbursts, we offer a suggestion.
The Democrats have had the donkey as their mascot
for a long time and frankly, we feel it could use some
updating.

Yes we honestly believe that Oscar the Illinois
Ostrich should be the new mascot. Then when politicians
flock to Illinois like deposed dictators, Oscar appears
to be the perfect choice.

We also heard from an animal behavioral expert who
assured us that Illinois ostrichs hide behind hotel
drapes and don’t bury their heads in the sand.

And remember, if Al Qaeda really wants to destroy
the America we all know and love they better hurry
because Obama is beating them to it.
Comments are always welcome.

The 2011 budget

Someone asked about the city budget for 2011. After
some online cruisin’ we found the Operating & Capital
Improvement Budget, Fiscal Year 2011. We have downloaded
it and included a link for you to do the same at the
end of this post.

The budget is 399 pages of PDF file and we haven’t
had time to look it all over. Some questions were
asked about said budget and we will address a few
of the issues here.

According to information on page 6, the recommended
2011 total budget is a 14.7% increase over the 2010
budget at $230,507,484.

On page 7 we found the following:

Personnel costs represent 80 percent of the General
Fund’s expenditures. Employee benefits include funding
for health claims, which have increased an average of
10.5% per year over the last ten years ending in FY
2007. State mandated contributions to the statewide
fire and police pension system increased 80 percent
($1.7 million annually) from FY 2003 to FY 2006 due to
benefit increases approved by the Iowa legislature and
poor investment performance. As a result of this
structural imbalance and the challenges discussed above,
a net of 38.5 full-time equivalent positions have been
eliminated between FY 2003 and FY 2010. Five full time
and two part time positions were added to the Police
Department in FY 2009. One position dedicated to grant
management was added in the Finance Department. One
position was added to the Community Services division
of the Fire Department for rental inspections.

The rest of budget will have to wait as it has been
another long day. If your computer can handle it, feel
free to download the PDF file for yourself.

To see a copy of the FY 2011 budget go here. We will warn you it is over an 8 MB download.
Comments are always welcome.

Interesting times

We all had quite a time last week. We witnessed
the madness in Wisconsin, saw the first rain of
the year, and heard about our city’s looking into
putting up recharging stations for electric cars.

Then on Friday we watched Michael Waltrip win his
first truck series race and give a moving tribute
to Dale Earnhardt on the anniversay of his death.
Saturday brought Danica Patrick being the first
woman to lead a lap at Daytona, and Sunday we
witnessed Trevor Bayne become the youngest winner
of the Daytona 500 at 20.

If NASCAR was looking for something to boost their
ratings they hit the trifecta. We can only hope the
group can keep up the momemtem.

We also learned a bit of trivia. By the laws in
effect at the time, the 1960 Ford Starliner was too
wide to be street legal. This was due to the horizontal
fins that were popular that year. Ralph Nadar did his
best to get Ford to change the width, but Edsel Ford
played phone tag with him until the 1961 models came
out.

And in the ultimate barn find story catagory comes
word of a Tucker being found in a barn in Brazil after
being there for decades. According to the Hemmings Blog
it was all due to a land deal. The car is rough, but
it is a Tucker.

There was more going on over the weekend, but these
were the things that caught our eye. Now we’ll get
back to looking into some things we put on hold to
watch the races.
Comments are always welcome.

An honest priest

Since it is Sunday we felt the time was right to
post a joke involving a priest. It is a clean joke
that involves no bathroom humor or mention of sex.
It also gave us a laugh so we hope you enjoy it too.

A very distinguished lady on a plane from Switzerland
found herself seated next to a nice priest. She asked,
“Excuse me, Father, could I ask a favor?”

“Of course, my child, what can I do for you?”

“Here’s the problem…… I bought myself a new
sophisticated hair remover gadget for which I paid an
enormous sum of money. I have really gone over the
declaration limits and I am worried that they will
confiscate it at customs. Do you think you could hide
it under your cassock?”

“Of course I could, my child, but you must realize that
I can not lie.”

“You have such an honest face, Father, I am sure they
will not ask you any questions.”
She gave him the hair remover and the aircraft arrived
at its destination.

At customs the priest was asked, “Father, do you have
anything to declare?”

“From the top of my head to my sash, I have nothing to
declare, my son,” he replied.

The customs officer asked, “And from the sash down,
what do you have?”

The priest replied, “Well, I have a marvelous little
instrument destined for use by women, but which has never
been used.”
Breaking out in laughter the customs officer said,
“Go ahead Father. Next!”

Comments are always welcome.