Creative Endeavors, The Home of BoxcarOkie.com

December 30, 2008

Mayberry’s Hero

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 5:58 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

opieWatched some captivating and interesting television last night (for a change).  It celebrated the history and the works of Ron Howard (Opie Taylor), all of his movies as a producer and director.

His efforts on the screen as a child actor and star.  I certainly was not aware of the copious volumes of his work, and it was interesting as all get out.

Glued to the tube, I microwaved me some day old pizza and stayed up well past my appointed retirement time, to finish it all.  I seldom do that.  If you missed it, I am so sorry for you, it was memorable TV and you don’t find that much anymore.

So what else is going on, let’s get started.

Now they are saying that “recyclables” are taking it in the shorts, and the price of everything, plastic, newsprint, cardboard, alum.cans, copper all of it is tanking.

The city is now reporting that recycling outfits are reneging on contracts and not taking any more material, because there is simply “no money in it anymore.”  All recyclables are now again, headed for the dumps or county landfill.

Did you ever think you would live long enough to see a time in your life when garbage was worthless?  Well, that time has arrived.

When economies shut down, as they are doing worldwide, then the demand for raw materials declines, and that seems to be in play here.  China having shut down a lot of its industrial might, Japan no longer needing steel for cars it cannot sell here or abroad, no one is buying.  And the people that do have it (material) are holding onto it hoping for better prices down the line.

The Age of Scarcity is here.

Kind of makes you wonder, “if everything is not in demand, and if it is all being packaged smaller and smaller” then why are some companies posting massive profits.  Because they are giving you less and charging you more.

Take Kraft Foods for instance.  The company’s income soars to new heights, and the first thing Kraft does is put out a statement to defend the obscene profits.

The CEO of Kraft foods put out an erroneous statement that a high percentage of food stocks are being diverted for use in the production of fuel, estimates as high as 40%.  Along with other absurd statements such as “almost half of all grains, dairy, vegetables, meats and fruit in the world are being used to convert into fuel.”

Which is simply not true and in no way justifies the obscene profits that Kraft is making.  The United Nations reports that about 3.7 billion acres of land is used for farming and of that, less than 1% of that is used for the production of alternative fuels.

Food companies have blamed bio fuels all year long in order to justify high prices. Kraft posted $1.4 billion in earnings last quarter alone.

Adjusted for inflation, corn, and wheat have dropped by 50% since spring and soybean prices are lower than they have been since the great depression.  Isn’t it funny, when the price of a barrel of oil went down, so did the price of fuel.  But it evidently doesn’t work that way with the people who process food.

Anyone notice, or is it just me?  The count on the number of active rigs looking for new sources of oil nationwide has steadily declined in the past 4 to 6 weeks.  When the price of the product sinks, they stop looking, when someone stops buying their product, they don’t refine it, to drive up the price, and now according to the latest rig count, it appears that it is no longer profitable to drill for oil so they are shutting down all the rigs.

Surprisingly our dependence on foreign sources must have disappeared and there is no longer a viable reason to explore for more.  Who would’ve thought that?  I now understand in the U.K. they are trying to put “speed limiters” on automobiles (that would be an engine governor over here) in order to cut emissions and cut down on fuel use.

At least someone is still in the ballgame.

Here is today’s Rasberry Award to Redding California who should be moved to the top of the list (If you don’t know what list I am talking about, email me and I will gladly point it out to you) — Shasta County health officials are cracking down on an 86-year-old disabled World War II veteran who has been selling homemade fruitcakes for more than a decade.

An obscure law bans food businesses in private homes, the Department of Environmental Health said. Officials said Jack Melton must use a commercial bakery that has passed a health inspection. Melton said his sales helped supplement his Social Security benefits.

A scumbag banker can get away with murder, but we crank it down on an old Vet. that is so sad.

Providence Rhode Island residents are scooping up $20 dollar tickets in the hopes of hitting it big on a new $1 million state lottery. Only 120,000 tickets are being sold, with about 2,000 remaining. The winner will be chosen during a New Year’s Eve drawing. Besides the top prize, there are 10 drawings for $10,000, 100 chances to win $500 and 500 chances to win $100.

New War in the Middle East or another round of the same old one, I am not sure.  Day after day the Love Fest in Washington DC continues, everyone gearing up for the big party.  Out with the old and in with the new.

Some things in the New Year will stay the same, we have what are known as constants in our lives and here are a few for you:

  • Insect spray:  “Harmful to bee’s.”  Sadly, just about everything these days is harmful to bee’s, and they are in serious decline, not only in this country, but around the world.
  • Motorcycle mirror: “Objects in the mirror are behind you.”  Duh, you think so?
  • Bag of peanuts:  “This bag contains nuts.”
  • Mattress:  “Do not attempt to swallow.  Do not remove tag under penalty of law?” There are actually people who enforce these laws?
  • Remote control:  “Not dishwasher safe.”
  • Hair blower/dryer:  “Do not use in the shower.”
  • Iron:  “Never Iron clothes on body.”
  • Wristwatch: “This is not underwear, do not put in pants.”
  • Life saving device:  “This is NOT a life saving device.”
  • “I just love that rich, beefy, hearty flavor.” People really talk like this?
  • Why is it that every tour boat on any lake in America is always called “Lady Of The Lake?”

Most of all I am so glad that we have people like Ron Howard, who can make a great movies that I can go to and get away from it all for just a little while.  It gives you a brief respite where you can mull over in your mind that terrible feeling you got as the woman drove away in her car and yells to you “Hey, Thanks A Million” and you suddenly realize that the directions you gave her were dead wrong.

Stuff like that.

000

December 11, 2008

Nobody Cares About Your Dreams

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent,Uncategorized,writing — ldsrr91 @ 11:37 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

recent-shots-006

Coffee is good this morning, a little bite to it, but that is okay, it is cold here and uncomfortable.  Americans drink about 400 million cups of coffee per day, that is a lot of coffee, that is an ocean of coffee.  Which is kind of strange, when you stop to think about it.  Coffee has no nutritional value that I know of, why we drink it is truly somewhat of a mystery.

Four out of five adults in the U.S. drink coffee every day.  I know one person who doesn’t, his favorite quote about coffee is this.  “How can something that smells so dog-gone good when it is perculating in the pot, taste so rotten afterwards.” He is not a caffeine junky like the rest of us.

We average about two cups per day in this country, per consumer, that would be about 1/3 of the worlds’ supply of the elixir.  I understand that coffee contains 100 milligrams of caffeine; a cup of espresso has 200.

No More Free Toasters

You can now add Credit Unions to the list of people signing up for the bailout money, they applied for and received $40 billion worth this week to bolster against mortgage losses.  You know the other day I was sitting at the beanery waiting for them to bring me my order and I was staring out the window.  And I got that glazed over look in my eye and the wife said to me, “I know I shouldn’t but I am gonna anyway.  What are you thinking about”?”

And I said, “Oh, I was thinking back a long time ago, when we were young and stupid and we invested in that Ponzi scheme.  You remember that?” and she said, “Oh Lord, whatever made you think of that?”

For all of you that are not aware, a Ponzi scheme is a get rich deal, most of the time called a “Pyramid Scheme” and the people, who get in early, make tons of money, the others, well they don’t do so well.  They mainly lose their investment.  We were in the later group, we lost, about $1,000 and interest, and I made every stinking payment on it, 36 of them suckers.  (I told you we were young and stupid, we didn’t even have the money to lose, we borrowed our entry level amount … Now that was really d-u-m-b.)

So here is the deal.

I am thinking about how it is that I did something really dumb, really stupid, and I lost what I considered a large amount of money.  AND NO ONE … NOT ONE SOLITARY SOUL CAME FORWARD TO BAIL ME OUT … I HAD TO PAY EVERY DAMN DIME OF IT … AND I HAD TO TAKE MY KNOCKS THE HARD WAY. Since then, several lucrative offers have presented themselves, and we always say “no thank you.”  Our official position is that we have had so many good deals in the past, we cannot afford any more of them now.

When do WE get bailed out … Who is going to help us out … those of us that are struggling.

Business has gotten so bad here lately, even the people who were not planning on paying for it anyway, are not buying. I asked my neighbor about it and he said, “The bible says cast thy bread upon the waters and it will be returned to you 100 fold.”  Which is fine, but what are you supposed to do with 100 soggy wet loaves of bread?  When I was young, my paycheck would burn a hole in my pocket, these days it isn’t enough to keep my pocket warm.  It is truly a shame that at this point in life, you have only one regret.  And that would be that you have not accumulated enough cash to be able to fly on a moment’s notice to Japan to bid on Paul’s Sergeant Peppers uniform.

The Governor will see you now … Please have your checkbook handy

Corruption has tainted politics in Chicago (Illinois in general) since the prohibition days and Albert Scarface Capone, but the arrest Tuesday of Illinois Governor Brad Blagojevich revealed alleged conspiracy and bribery schemes so brazen that the veteran investigators and prosecutors could barely hold their revulsion.  Government for sale .. to the highest bidder, the American Way, kind of makes you proud doesn’t it?  Shades of Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas.  When the highway patrol stopped you there, they would say, “Have your wife get out of the car, so the governor can frisk her.”

Here is another one out of Illinois for you. In Springfield, Zachary Holloway, 20, and a pal were arrested and charged with breaking into one car and stealing, among other things, a motorcycle helmet, then attempting to break into another car.

To try to get into the second car, Holloway put on the helmet, stood back from the car, and charged into it, head-butting a window, unsuccessfully, twice.  They were arrested and booked that day.

Finally coming clean

Some 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, plaintiffs in the case are getting what’s left of the money they were originally awarded, the Anchorage Daily News reports.  Some plaintiffs will get amounts ranging from several hundred dollars to $100K or more.  Most had just about given up hope of getting anything from it at all.

Now lets see, you take an amount of money, put it in the bank and allow it to sit, for say …. Oh let’s just say “twenty years” … that might accumulate enough in interest where you end up never paying a fine at all.  Just thinking outside the box.  Naw, “our friends in the oil and gas industry” wouldn’t do that to us … would they?

Oh well it could be worse (how could it possibly be worse?) you could be in your car, stranded on an Alaskan highway and the only human within 200 miles is a Cro-Magnon Woman wearing a torn parka who communicates through a series of bizarre grunts, winks and gesticulations and she not only comes to your rescue, but you have to “talk to her” all the way back to town.

Lying crooks what is this world coming to?

In the city that launched the national crime-stopper movement, Albuquerque, New Mexico, which pays informants for tips that help police solve local crimes there could be a possible snag.  It appears now the highly successful program designed for, “people that hang out with crooks to do part time work” might be providing the cops with “less than truthful information” for the rewards.

It appears that even in hard times, the low life’s will resort to less than honest approaches at generating funds.  Police are now saying that they are going to have to be more careful because they “might be playing games with us” in order to get the money.  Geeze, do you think so?  Bad cop, bad cop, no donut.

Man, I would like a shot at that myself.

Barre, Vermont. A man who hit Governor Douglas in the face with a pie during an Independence Day parade will spend five days on a work crew for the prank.  Matthew Manning, 23, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and apologized.  Manning, dressed as Santa Claus ran up to Douglas during the Montpelier parade and threw the pie before being tackled by the mayor and being detained.  I would like to pay this man’s fine, if there is one, but I am curious.  “Santa Claus at an Independence Day celebration, what were you thinking?”

Time to wrap this one up.

If you attend the job fair/money seminar at the Holiday Inn this weekend?  When the speaker begins the seminar by saying, “By a show of hands, how many of you don’t know the difference between a stock and a bond?” and you are the only one with your hand in the air?

Go immediately to the Lobby … American Xpress or Bank Of America are looking for you.  You might have a new job Monday morning.

Who says things aren’t looking up.

000

We are still valiantly trying to hit “one million” visits by March 12th of 2009, please help us to achieve this goal.  Post the address anywhere you like (www.boxcarOkie.com), tell all your friends, ask them to just stop by and check it out.  Help us to make this happen!

November 24, 2008

Obama’s Dilemma

Filed under: Oklahoma,politics,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 3:15 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

If anyone out there is thinking it is almost over and Bush and the Boys are “going to fade off into the sunset” and a new day will prevail.  If you find yourself sitting back and taking it easy because Mr. Obama is now in the cat bird seat … softly hummin and singing  “Happy Trails to you, happy Trails to you, until we meet again.”

Take a deep breath, and think again.

In May, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten issued a memo announcing that, as far as last-minute regulations were concerned, the Bush Administration would take the high road.  Agency heads were instructed to “resist the historical tendency of administrations to increase regulatory activity in their final months.“  Bolten set a June 1 deadline for proposing new regulations, and ordered that none be issued after November 1, except in “extraordinary circumstances.”

Unfortunately, Bolten’s deadline seems to have come and gone without anyone paying much attention and a fair share of changes are now taking place before Mr. Obama takes office.  Some will be of course, very difficult at best, for the incoming President to remove.

It seems Mr. Bush in his almost maniacal frenzy to be remembered in history (his so-called legacy) is wholesaling out new governmental rules daily.  Regulatory changes that are in some cases very detrimental for the American taxpayer and consumer, but as with all things in the Bush administration, very lucrative for the business sector.

The Bush administration in the past week has adopted several controversial regulatory changes long sought by business groups, drawing criticism from congressional Democrats. The changes include new rules that open the way for commercial development of oil shale on federal land, allow truckers to drive for longer periods, and add certain restrictions on employee time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act.  Just to name a few, and there will be more I am sure.

Literally millions of taxpayers asked the federal government to leave the pristine areas of the west as “off limits” to oil exploration only to be ignored.  Some 4,300 oil leases currently held in the Gulf of Mexico are not being moved on by the oil companies and others nationwide lie dormant and unused.  These new rules will open almost 2 million acres of land in Western states to oil shale development. Environmentalists say oil shale development, which involves extracting liquid oil from solid rock by heating it, increases greenhouse gas emissions and requires intensive water use.

Why the big push to open up even more public lands to these petroleum whores?

Another rule eliminating the mandatory, independent advice of government scientists in decisions about whether dams, highways and other projects are likely to harm [endangered] species looked likely to meet the deadline, leaving the only chance for a quick reversal to Congress.  So instead of “re-writing science” as has been the case of the Bush administration in the past, now it will be permissible to just circumvent science altogether.  More >>>

Not good if you are wolf eking out a living outside the confines of Yellowstone, or a Soft Shell turtle in Florida trying to raise a family I am afraid.

And if you don’t believe the push is on to get it all in place consider this.  Last month, the head of the endangered species program corralled 15 experts in Washington to sort through 200,000 comments in 32 hours.  Which as any one person can clearly see is an incredibly daunting task for even the most competent.

What we have gotten is nothing short of pure lip-service on important issues from Bush and his cronies.  As we are being placated with useless rhetoric and Texas country euphemisms they are relaxing pollution-control standards for power plants or allowing loaded weapons into national parks, the Bush administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama.

Which has sadly become somewhat of a “tradition” in Washington DC every past administration has taken advantage of this loathsome practice.

This surge of ‘midnight regulations’ presents a tough question for the next administration?  What can it do to void rules it thinks should be undone? It appears the only choice Mr. Obama will have is his use of ‘executive authority without waiting for congressional action’ to reverse many of Bush’s policies.

But that authority has its limits.

While executive orders and rules that are not yet in effect can swiftly be reversed or altered by Mr. Obama’s appointees or his own executive orders, rules that go into effect before he takes office will be extremely difficult to undo. Rescinding a rule would require the new administration to re-start the rule-making process, which can take years and prompt legal challenges.

Which effectively will leave the country much like a dressed up hog for the market, all tied up and bound for the butcher.  This is a alteration of governmental policy we did not need by any stretch of the imagination.

Bush’s newly installed midnight regulations also could be challenged by public interest groups, who are already considering legal actions to get some of them overturned. It appears the much heralded “change” has arrived as promised, only a tad bit early, in the hands of what I have always considered “the bad guys.”

There are more than a dozen new rules in today’s Federal Register, including at least two proposed rules (which agencies were supposed to stop creating by July 1). A few examples: A final rule from the EPA sets limits on a pesticide called ipconazole used by agricultural companies; . . A final Commerce Department rule allows fishermen to use ‘trawl gear’ to catch halibut in Alaska; environmental groups say is detrimental to the environment.

Watch for the proposed rules on the length of time truck drivers can work. According to Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, a long-time auto safety advocate, the rule “is practically identical to two rules that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down last year” (and in 2004) after Public Citizen challenged the regulations.

Under the rule, drivers may continue to log a physically and mentally demanding 77 hours behind the wheel in a seven-day period, take a mere 34 hours off, then hit the road to do it all over.”  Truckers are now working for what is tantamount to slave wages anyway, this will just allow the problem to be exacerbated even more, it will solve nothing.

We tell them no, they ignore us, and come right back for more.  Public opinion, constitution issues, it is as if they simply do not exist under the rule of these thugs.  This is not good government this is “ideology.”

The next time you are considering voting for a “good ole boy, a “C” average beer drinking buddy, to run your country, stop and think about the legacy he left for you and your children to endure.“

As Dr. Phil would say ….. What were we thinking?

000

Related: The Best Law You Never Heard Of.

September 4, 2008

Territorial Loons …

Filed under: Oklahoma,random,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 5:52 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I don’t do windows … A strange invention. Clear Tech self-cleaning glass. The glass is coated with titanium dioxide, which is photo-catalytic, meaning that it has a chemical reaction to light. When sunlight hits the glass, it breaks down material on the window into smaller and smaller particles. The coating is also hydrophilic, meaning that rainwater won’t form droplets on the glass … it forms as an even sheet that flows down the window, taking dirt away with it. (If it doesn’t rain often enough, I suppose you would have to hose it down every now and then) Japan’s Nippon sheet Glass Company began test-marketing the glass for large office buildings and airports, but they were soon overrun with requests from individual customers, so now it is made for homes too.

Better late than never … Utah begins phasing out highway signs that refer to the 2002 Winter Olympics. New signs will feature geographically specific images, such as Zion National Park and Lake Powell.

More Loons … Laconia New Hampshire is reporting that a census of the state’s loons showed a slight increase in the population, but a decrease in population. Yes, you read that right. Didn’t make sense to me either. The Loon Preservation Committee, (not to be confused with the Republican Party … The Grand Old Party that is somewhat short of fresh faces), surveyed 119 lakes and found the number of territorial pairs of loons increased from last years count, 125 chicks were hatched, but unfortunately only 95 actually survived.

The Loon Count from Minneapolis-St Paul isn’t in, but I am sure that the number of “matched territorial pairs” has increased from four years ago.

Dirty Money … Americans are now the biggest cocaine users in the world. This is the conclusion of a study of paper currency from nations around the world, which found MORE cocaine residue on U.S. Dollars than on currency from such countries as Spain, Canada, and England. The cocaine is passed onto the bills by the same fingers that directly touch the drugs or the wrappings.

Some coke users also use rolled bills as straws to sniff the drug (usually a hundred dollar bill, if you are classy dude) and cocaine is not the only substance that you will find on the money.  It appears money also has some other nasty stuff on it.

Also included in the study was the $1 bill which usually circulate for about 12 months on average, and they show traces of E.coli and other disease-causing bacteria. Might think about this the next time you stick a wad of money in your mouth, while searching for your car keys in the other pocket.

Big Payday … Thanks to high oil prices, the member countries of OPEC cartel collected $645 billion in revenue in the first six months of this year, that is DOUBLE their combined incomes for the entire year of 2007. Meanwhile, the U.S. Economy still continues to erode. The Mafia in New York City is rumored to have cut off five Federal Judges.

Things are not improving …….

Ethanol … The EPA won’t back down. A coalition of environmentalists and oil companies had requested a suspension of the governments demand that 9 billion gallons of Ethanol be added to the nation’s oil supplies. Reasoning that the increase in corn production is hurting wildlife habitat and consumers while failing to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The EPA said that the Ethanol requirement didn’t cause “severe economic harm.”

Which is in total compliance with the Bush administrations policies concerning the planet. The current administration continues to monitor the situation with an attitude of outright venality  Which is basically summed up as the governments’ abuse of Human Rights is only exceeded by its destruction of the environment.  If you are hungry … tough. If you are a frog … even worse.

An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men his age, the boy didn’t really know what he wanted to do, and he didn’t seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy’s room and placed on his study table four objects.

1. A bible.  2. A silver dollar. 3. A bottle of whisky. 4. And a Playboy magazine.

“I’ll just hide behind the door,” the old preacher said to himself. “When he comes home from school today, I’ll see which object he picks up.  If it’s the bible, he’s going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be! If he picks up the dollar, he’s going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too. But if he picks up the bottle, he’s going to be a no-good drunken bum, and Lord, what a shame that would be. And worst of all if he picks up that magazine he’s going to be a skirt-chasing womanizer.”

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son’s foot- steps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room.

The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them.

Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink, while he admired this month’s centerfold.

“Lord have mercy,” the old preacher disgustedly whispered.

“He’s gonna run for Congress.”

000

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “No group of people have worse hairstyles than men in Government.”

August 14, 2008

Rooster Tales …

Filed under: Oklahoma,random,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 6:44 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  “For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.”

A bad day to be a frog.  CBS or NBC, I cannot remember, is now reporting that frogs are dying all over the planet.  Increased temperatures in the water, foster the growth of a fungus-viral type organism that is killing them off at an unprecedented rate, some 40% of the worlds species of frogs have either died or have completely disappeared.

These are the little guys, natures’ survivors, that made it thru the Ice Age, planetary collisions and collapse of entire eco systems in the past, for possibly millions of years.  When all the dinosaurs were toast, we still had the lowly little frog.  Now their days seem to be numbered, time is running out people, best wise up and do something.

San Antonio, Texas.  News from the America that Mr. Bush says “has no problems.”  More and more families are turning to food banks and public assistance because of high food prices and an ailing economy.  The San Antonio food bank helped nearly 316,000 families in the fiscal year that ended in June.  That was up 85% from last year.

The problem is just not a local thing it is global.

Now we are seeing entire countries outsourcing their problems.  Nations like Kenya, Cambodia, and Georgia, for example are proving that they cannot provide carrying out of basic functions of statehood.  Assorted aid agencies, international charities and philanthropists are replacing traditional donors and government influence.  Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are increasingly taking over key state functions, providing for the health, welfare and safety of citizens.

I hope they leave a little for us in the end.

ExxonMobil posted second quarter earnings of $11.7 billion, the largest quarterly profit ever recorded by any company.  ExxonMobil also posted the previous record setter which was 11.6 billion in profit in the 4th quarter of the year 2007.  Americans are using 800,000 barrels less oil per day now because of extreme cost and conservation and yesterday the American refiners announced that they were not the bad guys … “We are only making 3 to 4 cents profit” on a gallon of fuel, and that their profits are down 85% over last year.

Yeah, I believe that, like I believe in …….. Well, y’know the rest of it, dont’cha?

Nissan says that next year it will introduce a gas pedal that pushes back when it sense drivers are accelerating too quickly.  The “ECO Pedal” system is said to improve fuel efficiency by 5% to 10%.  What I need is a wallet that will grow a new gasoline dollar each time I take one out, something like a lizards tail.  You can think on that one for awhile, this ends today’s science portion of the post, boys n girls.

The computer mouse, which turned 40 years old this year, will be obsolete in three to five years.  Touch screen programming, joysticks and possibly facial recognition will replace it.  We had mouse problems this past week, but we discovered the culprit was right here in the office all the time.

Now I like this one.

Metro officials are using police style laser type radar guns to track the speed of buses in Washington DC area.    Over the past year Metro bus supervisors have issued 152 speeding citations to drivers ….  Even though the bus drivers know the location of the daily speed traps in advance … Now that is pretty bad, you KNOW where they are going to be, and you still get caught speeding?

How many dollars does it take to protect the Presidential candidates?  It takes or is estimated to take, $40,000 per day for each of them, and the bill for this expense will be some $106 million this year alone.

John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called “pullets”, and ten roosters, whose job it was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn’t perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

The farmer’s favorite rooster was old Butch, a very fine specimen he was too.  But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch’s bell hadn’t rung at all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

But to Farmer John’s amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn’t ring. He’d sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result…The judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren’t paying attention.

Vote carefully this year… the bells are not always audible.

000

July 19, 2008

Notable Whatever

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent — ldsrr91 @ 2:04 AM
Tags: , , , , ,

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “In Oklahoma, it is illegal to hunt a whale.” … Is this a great state or what?

So I am reading the WordPress.com dashboard and I am looking at the “fastest growing blogs” on the net and I am wondering, “What do they have?” I mean some of them are just sites promoting vacuum cleaners or household items, what in the world is making them the fastest growing items on the net?

There are a few things that I do not understand.  Jay Leno writes one piece, ONE PIECE, and it floats around the blogo-sphere for years? I put up stuff almost every day for four months and it goes nowhere.

I don’t get it. I really don’t.

As I am a firm believer that “people want and need to be fed happy news and flat out unadulterated gossip” not war, death, and unrest, I continue to daily forge on.  But often it is not understandable for me as a hack to figure out this popularity and interest.  I just keep hammering them out, running it up the flagpole to see if someone will salute it on a day to day basis.  Hopefully it will lead to something productive one of these days and some possible good may come out of it.

Enuff on that …….

Congress today raises the age for licking the syrup off a plate to thirteen. High summer temperatures and ever-increasing levels of U.S. beverage consumption are causing ice cubes across the nation to melt at “an alarmingly unprecedented rate,” the U.S. Department of Consumer Affairs reported recently.

After months of tirelessly supporting his wife on the campaign trail, devoted spouse and former president Bill Clinton breathed a resigned sigh Monday and carefully folded the charcoal silk, fitted sheath dress he had hoped to wear as first lady during next January’s inauguration and placed it back in its beautiful box.

Ho-hum, everyone insert a well deserved “yawn” here. The Dollar Store is running a special on Fig Newton’s today.  Crazy Headlines: “SPRINGFIELD, MO …  This week’s Secret Society meeting will be held at the city hall in room 233B.” … Only in America.  Then if you have time, skip across the pond to the U.K. “A man has been arrested after 129 rabbits were stolen from a farm in Lincolnshire.” Damage costing up to £70,000 to rectify was also caused during the burglary at Highgate Farm, Norman by Spital, in January 2008.

I guess they caught him with DNA when he left a hare behind.

Wife is railing me for not taking out the trash.  Funny how things just slip your mind when your multinational energy corporation vows to make obsolete the very product that brought it an unstoppable cash flow for over a century.  Now, who wants to talk about how all school buses might someday run on vegetable oil?

Thought so.

Get ready cuz here it comes.  Declining gasoline purchases, due to higher prices, are hurting the federal fund that pays to maintain the nation’s highways, the director of the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday.

The fund is built on an 18.4 cent tax levied on each gallon of gas. It had been forecast to run out by 2009, but the fund is now shrinking more quickly, Peter Orszag testified to a Senate panel.  “Our March baseline did suggest that it would be exhausted in 2009 and an imbalance of roughly a billion and a half  dollars would occur during that time period,” he said of the CBO’s projections on the fund’s future.”

“Since March, gas prices have caused gasoline consumption to decline. So the incoming revenue will be lower than what we projected in March and the imbalance in 2009 will be more significant,” Orszag added.  Average U.S. gasoline prices have risen some 80 cents per gallon since the end of March to a record $4.11, up $1.13 from a year ago.  The office, which audits the economic impact of congressional bills and programs, will release new projections by the end of summer, he noted.

Once again, I pick up the paper and it tells me what I already know. The gas tax has become an issue in the presidential election, with presumptive Republican nominee John McCain proposing to suspend the tax for a short period to speed economic recovery. Barack Obama, the expected Democratic nominee, has said suspending the tax would provide little relief.

And George W. Bush, looking up from Grand Theft Auto II and saying ………. “Huh? What’s zat?”  By the way, “no more emails on Obammer please, the bottom of the bird cage is full.”

From 1995 to 2000, the U.S. highway fund had a surplus of between $10 billion and $23 billion, according to the CBO, and in 1998 Congress cut $8.017 billion from it.   On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee sent legislation to the full Senate to restore that amount in the coming year as part of a larger infrastructure funding bill.  The House Ways and Means committee is considering similar legislation.

The Congress will take up drafting a new transportation bill next session. Like I said, “Get Ready.” Here it comes. It is never enough, you cannot win. So apparently we must seek out the good in this, as my Grandmother used to say … “Look For The Rainbow, Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining.”

The wisdom of age.

So here it is ….. “For every 10 percent rise in gas prices, [traffic] fatalities are reduced by 2.3 percent”

Like I said … I don’t get it. I really don’t.

000

Related: Give Up – Surrender

June 30, 2008

Damn Big Oil …

Filed under: Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 5:12 AM
Tags: , ,

How can we know,

how far,

the long way can be

Looking from where we are,

it never seemed that long to me

I’ve many miles behind me,

and maybe now,

not so much ahead

Looking back,

it seems I made good time,

even with the directions I miss-read

a Funny thing,

This thing called time,

A thing we are always running out of

A thing we can never seem to find

I am always coming up short

or losing mine

There’s not enough of it about,

and though it’s always here

It always seems to come and go I’ve found out

No gas,

no money,

it is weighing heavy on my mind

I am moving quickly to the bottom line

I still have places I want to see,

I still have hills to climb

No more going quietly into the dark night

Here is my reality

No more drives in the country burning daylight.

It looks like I am flat out running out of time

A hammock on the front porch is all that is left for me.

Locked down and serving my time,

Here on the sound side of my city.

000

June 27, 2008

Liberal Tree Huggers

Filed under: Recent — ldsrr91 @ 5:00 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now the Obammer Camp says that they are packing it in on the “Not So Official Seal,” which seems to be the talk of the town here lately. The seal, with its blue background and an eagle in the center clutching arrows and an olive branch, evoked the official presidential version, but had been altered with a new Latin phrase.

Instead of the original “E pluribus unum,” which means, “Out of many, one.” Obama’s campaign changed the phrase to “Vero possumus,” which can be roughly translated to his “Yes, we can” slogan.

Now here at Creative Endeavors we are mainly into English, not all this other uppity crap, but we will give it a shot. Illegitimi non carborundum (Don’t let the bastards grind you down).

Doesn’t anyone in this country speak English anymore?

Mixed in all this garbage I keep hearing the words “Liberal and Tree Hugger” tossed about in a disparaging manner, and personally, I am getting tired of it. If it were not for liberals we might still be mired in a far away place called Viet Nam, and a host of other benefits, created by free thinking individuals.

As I reside in a state that has been raped, polluted, and ravaged by Big Oil, I can attest to their callous disregard for the country and the land. In our state, we have a company, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (I believe that is the name of it). This company has one job, it has only one main reason for existing, and that mission is to go out and clean up abandoned well sites and old oil facilities that the oil companies walked away from in years past.

We need Tree Huggers, and I am kind of glad they are around myself.

Pitcher Oklahoma is one of the largest major Super Fund Clean Up Sites in America, it wasn’t big oil there, it was mining companies who pillaged the area and turned it basically into a lethal cesspool of just about every chemical known to man.

Let’s face it, If it were not for all these radical liberals and tree huggers, there wouldn’t be a green tree or flower within fifty miles of this place.

Right now scientists are studying a “dead zone” in the Gulf Of Mexico that is huge, all caused by man made pollution flowing down the Mississippi River. Can you imagine what type of lethal witches’ brew of chemicals, fertilizers, animal waste, gas, oil that is floating downriver right now headed for the Gulf Of Mexico because of the recent flooding in the Midwest.

This summer swing by West Virginia, Tennessee, some parts of Kentucky and observe how the coal companies have taken off the tops of entire mountains to get to the coal underneath.  Look at the dead creeks polluted with coal slurry from ponds that were not maintained.

Stop and consider the ramifications of the recent floods in the midwest.  How many years is it going to take to get the soil back to being even half-way productive in the Corn Belt of America after this recent flooding.  It boggles the mind.

Personally I am glad we have Tree Huggers, I am not a liberal in any way shape, form or manner, but I still believe they are somewhat necessary.  We have a lot of good things brought to us by the actions of Liberal’s .

000

June 23, 2008

Goodbye George

Filed under: Oklahoma,Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 12:00 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

George Carlin died over the weekend of a heart attack. He was 71. I seem to be losing a lot of friends to heart attacks here lately, he will be missed. Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, Stuff, The Seven Dirtiest Words You Cannot Say On Television. He will be missed, and his humor, I suppose will live on, but it won’t be the same.

It never is.

CBS Sixty-Minutes ran a piece on the disintegration of the Salmon population in the West over the weekend. Salmon runs are now depleted to the point of being almost non-existent. What used to be 16 million a year, is now under 1 million and continues to decline to the point of extinction. Dams, stream siltation by logging interests, pollution and over fishing seem to be the problem. The human population is above the level that can be accommodated by the environment it seems.

What I cannot understand, given all these problems, why does the Government of the United States provide to the local indigenous Indian tribes grant money in the tune of $500,000 to buy new gill nets to take even more fish? The fish disappear, Alcoa Aluminum and the west, get cheap electricity, seem like a fair trade off to you?

There is news in the world concerning computers: Digital 60 Day marks the 60th anniversary the birth of the ‘Baby’ or Small Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), which is the forerunner of all modern computers. Baby was far from it, she weighed in at over a ton, and took up a lot of space. ‘The Baby’ successfully executed its first program in Manchester on 21 June 1948. That program was written by the late Tom Kilburn who designed and built the machine at The University of Manchester with the late Freddie Williams.

You know, if advances in automobiles had taken the same route as computers, they would be very efficient right now, about what, 70% more efficient to hazard a guess? One liter of fuel would serve the United Kingdom for a year and oil reserves would last the expected lifetime of the solar system – if efficiency in the car industry had improved at the same rate as in the computer world.

Think about it. My first computer, an Apple Mac had 512K and 256K of that was required just to “run the system.” They have indeed come a long way …..  Man, I just took a drink of my soda, and it “went down the wrong pipe” as my mother used to say, and now I have sticky gooey stuff all over my desk and my keyboard. Oklahoma backyard journalism is not pretty this day boys & girls, not pretty at all.

The Oil Companies ran another ad in the paper this weekend once again trying to convince us that “they are our buddies.” Here is something to think about … If you are a NICE GUY then you don’t have to RUN ALL OVER TOWN telling people that you are …. They already know.

One company touts the broad ownership of oil company shares by pension funds and implies that viewers’ pensions might very well be benefiting from the superb financial performance of the energy industry. The full page ad also suggests that oil companies really don’t make that much money when compared to other industries in America.

Uh correct me if I am wrong but …. This would presumably make oil companies poor investments for one’s pension fund, wouldn’t it?.

When the truth conflicts with the myth, sell the myth.

000

June 22, 2008

Bad Gas – I Cannot Drive My Car

Filed under: Recent,Uncategorized — ldsrr91 @ 4:00 PM
Tags: , , , , , , ,

More taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – No Gas –More taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – No Gas – More taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – No Gas – More taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – No Gas –More taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – No Gas – More taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil – More Taxes – Bad Gas – No Oil -  I CANNOT DRIVE MY CAR

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Theme: Rubric. Blog at WordPress.com.