Political thoughts

Some things make a lot of sense
while others leave us shaking
our heads. For the life of us we
can see no rhyme or reason for
the thought process.

Such is the case of mondays entry
in the Justice Blog, run by the
United States Department of Justice.

The post contains information about
the DOJs first annual Environmental
Justice Progress Report.

Is our air quality really bad
enough to warrant more government
intervention?

Then we keep hearing from the
drive-by media that Obama is almost
unstoppable in his bid for another
term. But 11 days ago, the Des
Moines Register published a poll
that had a different outcome.

And in the ‘more bad news for the
president’ category comes word
that the debt ceiling may be
reached around election time
instead of next year.

The prediction now falls between
November 2012 and early January 2013.
Analysts from the Bipartisan Policy
Center claim this is due to lower
tax revenues.

Other factors include the European
economic woes, volatile gas prices,
and the rate of economic growth.

But, after the dust settles on the upcoming
election, we hope to see a change on
the nameplate on the Oval office door.
Comments are always welcome.

Show and the race

This past weekend the Detroit
Autorama was held and many of
awaited word on the Ridler Award
winner.

The Ridler Award is a coveted
‘Best of Show’ award for cars
making the debut on the show
circuit at the Autorama.

Eight cars were in running this year, but of course
only one can win.

That car this year was a custom
1955 Thunderbird.

The other car news of the weekend
was the Daytona 500 which was delayed
because of rain.

The first Daytona 500 was held on
February 22, 1959, and this was the
first rain delay in the events
history.

The race which ended early this
morning is sure to be remembered
for years to come. We are still
watching the video of Juan Pablo
Montoya skidding into the jet dryer
and igniting 200 gallons of jet
fuel.

When all was said and done, Matt
Kenseth won the race. And that is
a couple of events for gearheads
that are now in the history books.
Comments are always welcome.

Shared misery

Sometimes good things go bad. We have
long-held that marriage is exempt
from this equation, but sometimes it
is not.

When a couple recite their marriage
vows it is indeed a joyous day. But
we wonder at what point does a couple
decide they can no longer live
together.

We hear of infidelity, cruelty, and
and the inevitable irreconcilable
differences, and realize the beginning
of the end has to start somewhere.

When does the loving couple turn
into a cage match where the pair
can no longer be in the same room
without a screaming fit?

It makes one wonder what happened
to ’til death do us part’? Society
has made it easier to break the holy
bonds with no-fault divorces and
people who want to take the easy way
out.

We were taught that a winner never
quits and a quitter never wins. We
were brought up believing a persons
word was their bond. Now it seems
like ‘in sickness and in health’ has
turned into ‘as long as it’s
convenient’.

When it happens to a couple we care
deeply about things get complicated.
No amount of heart-felt advice can
help unless both want to make it
work.

But we are also realists and know
that after our feelings are expressed
in words we have no control over the
outcome. We don’t know about how
others feel, but perhaps a marriage
permit should be issued before
couples get a license.

We won’t mention names, but will end
with this; whatever decision you come
up we will respect it as long as you
can both look at yourself in the
mirror after the dust settles.
Comments are always welcome.

Garlits has stroke

We usually don’t ask for favors, but
we do today. If you are a believer,
we ask you to give a nod to your God
for Don Garlits and his wife Pat.

Last Sunday Don, who checked his wife
into the hospital the previous friday and
was cleaning up the cabin of long time
associate Tommy (TC) Lemons with a
friend, had a stroke.

Some may remember Lemons recently
passed away. The hospital wouldn’t
release his wife due to declining
health, and it is believed the stroke
was brought on by the stress of
these events. The day after the stroke
was their 59th wedding anniversary.

He has regained most of his memory,
and has been released from the hospital.
Best wishes to the Garlits family.
Comments are always welcome.

Some history

Some forget that crude oil is not an
ancient phenomenon. Before cars and
electric lights, there was whale oil.

Whale oil was used to illuminate our
houses from the 1700’s until the mid
1800’s when the petroleum industry
took off.

In 1860 one could choose between
whale oil, coal oil, or petroleum to
light their lamps. Whaling was brought
to halt in April of 1861 due to the
Civil War and kerosene became the
lighting oil of choice.

Then, around 1872, natural gas was
piped into homes in Titusville,
Pennsylvania to light the homes. From
there it spread as quickly as the technology
of the day would allow.

As we see today, electricity took the
forefront as the source of illumination
of our homes. The incandescent light
bulb was invented in the 1870s, but
electricity really didn’t gain a
foothold until the mid 20th century.

And now, whale oil no longer is used
to make our candles or fuel our
lanterns, petroleum products are now
used to power our cars and roof our
houses, natural gas heats our homes,
and electricity lights our homes and
powers everything from computers to
compressors.

Just a little something to think about
on the weekend, or at least until the
race starts.
Comments are always welcome.

Snow and a show

We just got done removing the over
3 inches of global warming that fell
overnight. We even got the snow off
our satellite dish so our TVs would
work.

It is a mystery to us why the city
doesn’t have the streets cleared
from the snow routes yet. After all,
the city did declare a ‘snow
emergency’.

It must not have been an emergency
in our little corner of the city.
When the wife got home she mentioned
that she didn’t see any side streets
plowed.

And snow always makes us think of
indoor car shows. February 25 & 26
is the Rod & Custom Car Show at the
Berndes Center, 766 N. Maple Street,
in Monticello, Iowa.

Hours of the show are Saturday 11
am to 11 pm, and Sunday 8 am to 8 pm.
John Schneider is guest, and Dave
Palmer from 3D Sound will emcee.

So there is a little snow & go to
plan your weekend, or you could just
stay home with a good book.
Comments are always welcome.

Controlling guns

As we all know, there are a lot of
hot button topics in our current
political times. One that seems to
be ongoing here in Iowa is the
concealed carry law.

When first passed we gun owners
heard all about how the law was
going to turn our cities into the
21st century version of the wild
west.

We get a feeling that non-gun
owners think those of us who do
own guns are closet homicidal
maniacs just waiting for a law
to legalize murder.

Now that our state legislators
are looking into passing their
version of the castle doctrine the
non-gun owners are once again up
in arms.

Some don’t like the bill being
proposed that would allow permit
holders to be armed in public
buildings either. These claim they have
complete faith in the ability of
the police to defuse any situation
which may arise.

As we now know, nobody has been
shot, our homes are bullet ridden
from permit holders getting careless,
and a lot more citizens are armed.

Those who choose to remain unarmed
in our state may be fine with a
phone call to the police when their
home is broken into while they are
in it.

Those of us who are armed believe
when the burglars see a Colt 45 aimed
in their direction they may decide to
try elsewhere.

And we have had shootings, by the
criminals not permit holders, in
churches and political events, homes
and businesses.

Safety training is not as intense
for a permit as it is for our military
or law enforcement, but it is training.
What the unarmed have to consider is
if Grandma pulls her gun out of her
purse when threatened, is does she
really want to kill some punk, or
just be left alone.
Comments are always welcome.

Warning and more

Today, the United States Department
of Justice released a caution
concerning ‘cramming’.

For those who don’t know what
cramming is, it is the practice
of adding charges to our phone
bills.

They may be unauthorized, misleading,
or phony charges, and they may be
small enough we pay the bill anyway.

If you believe you have these charges
on your phone bill, the link explains
what to do.

Then the Blaze ran a story on
Monday concerning a rise in the number
of sex-change treatments among our children
and teens.

We have a problem with an 8-year-old boy
who has begun treatment to become a
girl, or an 11-year-old boy who is
undergoing the process to become a
girl.

Shouldn’t it be illegal for doctors
to give hormones to patients this
young, even with parental consent?
It may be a generational thing, but
we just don’t get it, and believe it
to be child abuse.
Comments are always welcome.

Volts, communists, and a lawsuit

About a year ago we heard about GE
putting in an order for 12,000 Chevy
Volts with a plan to eventually up
that to 25,000 units.

Haven’t thought about it much until
yesterday when news surfaced that the
Volts starting arriving at GE.

To up the ante, GE will pay the
charging station cost and the cost
of recharging the vehicles at home.
But if an employee decides to keep
their gas burner they will not get
any reimbursement.

We knew GE didn’t make hybrids or
electric vehicles and couldn’t
find a method in this madness.
Turns out GE does make charging
systems that can charge the cars
in as little as 4 hours compared
to up to 12 hours with other brands.

This could translate into over $4
billion for the company in 5 years.

And something we don’t remember
hearing anything about, is the claim
that in 2010 the Communist Party USA sued
the Democrat Party for stealing their
platform and calling it ‘Progressive’.

Recent local news had our city
council losing in court over an
adult entertainment venue. It seemed
clear that the court thought our
city administrator overstepped his
authority.

We do live in interesting times.
Comments are always welcome.

Holiday thoughts

President’s Day is almost upon us.
For those who don’t know what this
holiday is all about, it is the
day the president steps out the
back door of the White House first
thing in the morning.

If he sees his shadow, we have 6
more weeks of higher taxes.

On a different note, we read a
story in the QC Times on
friday about the progress on the
downtown casino.

We didn’t notice any mention of what
would happen if the riverboat pushed
going ahead with a sale and nobody
was lined up to buy. After all, the
city made them feel like a red-headed
step child.

The city made it clear it thought the
riverboat reneged on some promises and
the city wanted them to stow their
fenders and cruise elsewhere.

Now that push comes to shove we do
wonder if the boat could now take
legal action against the city if they
aren’t ready.

This could make for some interesting
times ahead.
Comments are always welcome.