Crony Capitalism

Half Billon Loss Here...Half Billion Loss There...




"Liberalism/Progressivism works until you run out of other people's money to spend..."

Bad Weather Predictions

I'm Starting To Get Worried...

This is sort of an off the wall rant/discussion this morning but I hope you will indulge me and take it for what it's worth.

As a result I'm going to feel free to say "I Told You So" within the next six or eight weeks, but because I'm an Injuneer rather than a Meteorologist you will also excuse me if I'm wrong.

Here's the deal.

Unlike the Global Warming/Climate Change Zombies, my understanding of Thermodynamics also allows me to understand that Tropical Weather...specifically Hurricanes...is Nature's way of re-distributing heat energy from the Equator/Tropical Latitudes to the Polar regions of the Earth.

And this year's lack of any substantial Tropical activity--we're only up to five storms with Emily recently--means that the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean waters are SUPER WARM right now.

All it's going to take is some lower level low pressure to get the thunderstorms going and some favorable upper level jet stream winds which will not blow the tops off of the storms and I think that people living on the coastal areas everywhere from Texas to Virginia had better be on the lookout for one or more exciting Tropical Weather events in the near future.

And the "Cape Verde" season is getting fired up now on the Calendar so you have to look near (the Gulf/ Caribbean) and far (the shores of West Africa) for the source of bad weather developing.

I didn't read this anywhere so you can take it with a grain of salt...but I know what I know and I'd be buying stock in Plywood companies, Tarps, and portable Electric Generators right now if I were you.

Just sayin'...

Teenage Wasteland Meltdown

Oh...No...There Goes Tokyo...Go Go Godzilla...



Sooooo00000000ooooo...where to start?

OK, let's just say that I'm back home but feeling pretty crappy mentally and physically right now for reasons beyond the scope of this blog and leave it at that.

Watch the news.

Try to stay out of it...at least the National News.

More later I guess...

Please Excuse Me While I Walk Over

And Smash You In The Head

You are hereby advised...

IF you utter the words "eco-friendly"...

Or "Green Energy"...

In my presence.

You are subject to having to file a police report after visiting the Emergency Room at your local Hospital.

OK?

That will be all...

For NOW...

Dammit...

The State Of The Union Address

Using My Powers Of ESP...


Here's a preview of tonight's utterings in front of the Congress:

Blaaaaaaa Ladies and Gentlemen of Congress...

Welcome to all of the lilly livered liberals on the Supreme Court...

Blaaa Blaaa welcome to all of you Smucks up there in the Gallery and those of you stupid enought to watch this on TV tonight...

Blaaa Improving Economy...

Stimulus blaaa General Motors & Chrysler...blaaaa

Blaaa Blaa Blaaa hard work ahead of us...

Deficit....George Bush's fault...

Osama Bin Laden...BAD...blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

oh yeah...Jobs...a few people actually still want to get a job but tough shit...

Wars in the middle east breaking the bank...

Republicans are going to take away your medicare and social security...blaa blaa blaa...

therefore we need to "invest" in infrastructure and green energy and padding the pockets of the congress men and women and teachers unions...

Education...free college for everyone including your pets....blaaaaaaaaaa

blaaa...did I mention the public employee's unions need your money to prop up their pension funds...

blaaa blaaa but if we all pull together and you'll just let us keep buying more and more people off with benefits we can't afford...

blaaa...pretty soon only the wealthy achievers making more than $250,000 $200,000 $75,000 will be paying taxes and we'll take 95% of their money...

blaa blaaa blaaa blaaaa...

Thank you...and good night...

(I just wrote that in about 5 minutes BEFORE tonight's address...let's see how I did...)

And one more thing...I hope Nasti Pelosi will sit her stupid ass down tonight and not jump around like a pogo stick like she did last year.

Next Time You See A Shooting Star...

Say Peeeeewwww Weeeeeeee...

I Want One...

Mercedes SLS Gull Wing






Unfortunately I'm a couple of dollars short of the $200,000 price tag...but still...

Eat My Dust

YOUR Government Has Lost It's Mind...


Crap like this just makes me crazy.

Did you know that the Imperial Federal Government of the United By-God States of 'Merica, via the Environmental Protection Agency, is considering regulating "Farm Dust" ?


OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations.

The letter dated July 23 to the EPA states, "If approved, would establish the most stringent and unparalleled regulation of dust in our nation's history." It further states, "We respect efforts for a clean and healthy environment, but not at the expense of common sense. These identified levels will be extremely burdensome for farmers and livestock producers to attain. Whether its livestock kicking up dust, soybeans being combined on a dry day in the fall, or driving a car down the gravel road, dust is a naturally occurring event."

It's not like that these idiots that can't run a letter delivery system and make a profit (US Postal Service)don't have plenty of important things to worry about.

Things that matter like Radon Gas in your basement or the Ozone Hole or leaking oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, but these stupid wild eyed suckers are spending time out running around looking for NEW STUFF to regulate.

But Farm Dust?

FARM DUST?

I guess they can add that to the list of crap the sniveling, booger eating, tie died, patchouli stinking hippies have to protest and worry about along with cows belching and farting and odors coming from chicken shit stored on chicken farms.

I swear to God People, if you go out in November and vote to put most of our elected idiots back in office (or worse yet you don't vote at all) you deserve to get a ticket for driving down a dirt road kicking up a dust trail in the process.

I have to go now because my head hurts just thinking about this idocy.

I'm Your Huckleberry...Part Deaux

The Latest "Cone Of Death" Approaches...




...And the sniveling tie died patchouli stinking booger eaters rejoice...


I TOLD YOU SO...


(and you're welcome)

Let The Cape Verde Hurricane Season Begin...

My Head Already Hurts




So it's August 1st, and the "Cape Verde" part of the 2010 Hurricane season will be getting into full swing in the next couple of weeks.

Look forward to the Atlantic Trade winds, as they have for the past zillion years, delivering the waves of moisture which come off of the African Continent across the Atlantic and with some miraculous combination of upper level highs and low pressure systems we here in the Southeastern US and the Central American region will get to enjoy the results of the atmosphere redistributing the heat and moisture in the process.

And the sniveling tree hugging booger eater global warming fanatics will sit around in their tie died shirts stinking of Patchouli and chanting "Death to Bush and Cheney" and the talking weather heads will tell you that we're all doomed and in the mean time I'm here to tell you...

It's AUGUST people...

On and near the US Gulf Coast...

And the wind is going to blow and the rain is going to fall just like it has pretty much every F**king year for the last million years since the Good Lord created the planet.

So get over it...

...Dammit...

It Rained On My Garden

...And I'm One Happy Camper As A Result....


Just in case I haven't mentioned it here on the blog in detail, I come from a proud yet mixed heritage. A combination of rural southern dirt farmers, with a healthy dose of Appalachian coal miner thrown in for good measure.

For some reason I, personally, developed a bit of a useless, ne'er do well, gypsy, pirate beach-bum spirit along the way but by and large I can't blame my ancestors for my own lethargy.

My Mother's father, "Pa" Rushing, ended up owning a farm which encompassed a little over 350 acres by the end of WWII and on that farm--besides all of the stuff "Old McDonald" raised i.e. chickens and cows and hogs et.al.-- he also managed to feed himself and his wife and five children and make a small living in the process.

Four of the five children are still alive today with the youngest in his early 70's.

On the other hand, "PawPaw" Rogers was a coal miner from his early teens. First in Eastern Kentucky, and then later in Central West Virginia and finally at the end of his career in South Eastern Ohio. PawPaw raised three boys digging and managing the digging of coal...him being Virgil Sr. and my father being Virgil Jr. and I Virgil III, and regretably only one brother remains today with the loss of my father and one uncle.

(And I, thinking that I had perfected the product line in my youthful wisdom, broke the mold and elected to not reproduce...thus there is no Virgil number IV or V or XI or MCMXII)

...but I digress

I was standing in my kitchen this morning looking at a pile of Tomatoes and Squash and Cucumbers I had grown in my little garden when out of the blue it occurred to me that the commonality which connects each side of my family was and is our self sufficiency and making a living in a fundamental manner.

Pa Rushing took seeds and dirt and water and made fruit and vegetables and meat...enough to feed his family at each year with enough left over to at least buy the next season's seed.

Pawpaw Rogers went out and worked in almost every part of the process of digging Coal out of the ground (he was the Electrical Superintendent of the Mine when he retired) so it could be said again that his living and prosperity was attained from the EARTH...or at least the dirt within a few miles of the surface thereof.

And I think that revelation could explain somewhat what's wrong with much of American society today...white, black, yellow, red, and heavily tattooed and pierced...We've lost our connection with the earth.

The sniveling, booger eating, patchouli stinking tree huggers want to protect it (the earth), but they forget in the process that we're all going to end up taking something from it in the process of living if we all want to survive.

Things like...

Oil

Coal

Or how about the basic nutrients required to grow crops and livestock (and they don't want us making Fertilizer because they consider it poison)

And when our lives are over with...in biblical terms...we will die and return in a "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" manner to the earth (and the area within five square miles around where my ashes are spread will probably be declared off limits and an EPA superfund site.)

And the thing this morning which has in my considered Redneck opinion been taken by the liberal elites and professional do-gooders and the politicians from most of the innocent an less enlightened citizens--with the "Urbanization of America"--and which by default also from our society...

is the basic, spiritual, fundamental connection with our planet which gives you life and an inner peace...a peace which is missing from so many peoples lives today.

Seriously, I've had more fun planting and harvesting and eating the fruits of my garden this year than I could ever have had spending thousands and thousands of dollars on some "All inclusive" vacation or whatever. A new car has never ever made me feel the way I feel when I wander out each moring in my flip flops and turn the leaves of the Squash and Cucumber plants over and find something to eat.

And you just wait until I start showing pictures of my Watermellons.

Anyway..this morning I feel like I just might be a little bit better of a man today as a result, and I suggest that everybody that's not feeling right go out in play in the dirt if they need a cure.

Time will tell I guess...

Green Energy...Gone Wrong

Owl Gore Cries Crocodile Tears...

Heh...

(thanks for the photo Rodger )

Abridged Official Transcript Of Oval Office Address

Brought To You By This Blogger As a Public Service


"Blaa Blaa Blaa Oil Spill Blaa bla balallllllaaa British Petroleum, Blaa blaa blaaa working families blaa blaaaa forced compensation.

Blaa blaa blaa great country blaa blaa limitations of my office blaa blaa determination blaa greater regulatory reform.

Green energy blaa blaa blaa don't pay attention to Owl Gore bonking that bimbo instead of his wife bla blaaa blaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Fossil fuel evil like Heroin blaaa wind energy blaa ethanol blaaaaa solar panels on your new bicycle blaa blaa shut up Biden blaa blaah.

Now I've got to go call for a tee time blaa blaa blaa and get started working on killing the coal companies once I'm finished with the Oil Companies...blaa blaa blaa

Thank you America...and good blaaaaaaaaaaaa evening"


Overall it was only a little over 18 minutes of Hell...I've listened to it once on the Radio and watched it once on TV and every bone in my body aches from enduring the process.

Now I have to go soak my head and press it in a vice and see if I can squeeze the inane words back out my ears and nose.

Please excuse me.

Latest Owl Gore Anti-Global Warming Scheme

Probably Taxpayer Funded...


Before...




After...



Next time you even THINK about agreeing with 99% of the crap delivered by the sniveling, booger eating, treehugging, eco-friendly greenie-weenies...

You know...

Stuff like being made to drive a car the sized of a Breadbox that gets 100 MPG...

And letting them turn off all of your new Fluorescent, mercury filled, light bulbs about 22 hours each day because all of the Coal Fired Power Plants and Nuclear Plants have been outlawed by the government...and they've torn down all of the Hydroelectric Dams so the Salmon can swim back up rivers.

...and their beloved "Green" solar farms and the wind farms can't keep up except for about two hours a day...

When you and your family are living through all of that and more, just remember what one FREAKING VOLCANO did to Air Travel in Europe and in Asia this past week.

Capiche?


(and yes, that's yet another original concept from my gigantic yet warped brain, rendered for your enjoyment with my Photoshop skills.)

The Cone Of Death Approaches

Governor Jindal Trys To Make Lingering Katrina "Victims" Get The Heck Out...


So I'm sitting here checking out the weather this morning and notice that my Mom and the Family Farm may be in the path of Hurricane Cousin Ida when she comes calling later this week.

But wait a minute, I also heard earlier where Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had already declared a state of emergency in New Orleans for fear that Carl Rove and George Bush were sending another Hurricane after the poor and disenfranchised residents of the lower fifth ward and other areas of the city STILL FIRMLY SITUATED BELOW SEA LEVEL FOUR YEARS after Katrina swamped the place.

Any way, it looks like the storm is going to take an eastward turn and be further downgraded into a weak hurricane or a strong tropical storm as it comes inland somewhere between the Mississippi/Alabama line and Appalachacola, FL.

Me and members of my family have been there and done this drill dozens of times in the past 75 years and as I see it there's no reason to run to the grocery store and buy all of the bread and milk and peanut butter--but I'll leave the decision up to each individual.

We've never once in the middle of the aftermath of a half dozen strikes and near misses by the eyes of Hurricanes (Opal and Elloise come to mind) seen hide nor hair of FEMA at our houses and we're still alive and paying "our fair share" of taxes today.

If I were not going to be 450 miles north of ground zero I would gas up my car and probably make sure I had batteries for the radio and flashlights, but then again I did that every year in the spring when I lived within a mile of the Atlantic on the Georgia Coast and a hundred yards from the beach on the Gulf in Mexico Beach, FL.

I never ONCE had to sit around and wait for the GOVERNMENT to knock on my door and tell me to take steps to protect my life and property.

Did I mention that I still have a 1.5 KW generator packaged in the original shrink wrap box...left over from when we moved to St. Simons Island in 2003?

So I can just hear it now...after a quiet Atlantic/Gulf hurricane season, the wild eyed, sniveling, booger eating, eco-friendly tree hugging patchouli tie-died smelly former hippy tree huggers will announce, at a press conference with Owl Gore, that this mid-November Hurricane is yet additional PROOF of anthropological (i.e. man made for those of you that attended business admin classes at the University of Georgia) climate change.

Just watch...

They will...

Bet me...

OK...I'm shifting gears here now Boss...

What really got me started yelling this morning was when I started calculating the total amount of atmosphric Oxygen a valve I'm rebuilding sees in the process of handling 650 CFM of air, 24/7, 51 weeks a year at 40 bars of pressure (588 pounds per square inch.)

I had to look up a chart with the composition of air in order to run the calculations, and when I did I found this chart:

Check that crap out...BY WEIGHT...

Nitrogen 75.5%

Oxygen 23.2%

and the HATED Global warming Villain...Carbon Dioxide???

CO2 equals only...

Ready?

0.05% of our ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE

That's FIVE ONE HUNDRETHS OF ONE PERCENT...

Got that?

So IF I continue to smoke Cigars...

And IF I continue to drive my old Suburban getting 9 MPG

And IF I continue to burn my branches and leaves in my back yard in a big smoky pile

And IF I continue to use my charcoal grill

And IF I continue to just not give a crap in general about my "Carbon Footprint"...

And IF I continue to run my mouth at an accelerated rate...

Then...

after all of that stuff happens without government intervention.

AND THE LEVELS OF ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE DOUBLE OVER THE REST OF MY LIFE...

Carbon dioxide will still, on that horrible, yes even possibly cataclysmic day in the eyes of Owl Gore and the sniveling booger eating crowd et. al.

...

Only be...

0.10% of the total mass of our atmosphere.

Now in light of these statistics, DOES anybody else out there besides me wonder what all the noise is about?


Yea...I thought so...

Dammit...

America After Obama's First Term

Country "Infrastructure" Going Backwards...


Today's topic which has my head spinning around at orbital rotational velocity has to do with my current foray into "Green Energy"...or more specifically the implementation thereof.

You may remember that the company that hired me and drug me up here to Knoxville (it snowed again last night) with a salary from our warm Little Island on the Georgia coast last May was involved primarily in the design of facilities that used or processed Coal.

Coal fired power plant engineering and Coal Coking facilities for steel mills were 90% of our business.

Things were already slowing down through the summer with the economy stagnation, but then Candidate Obama let it slip that it was his intention to bankrupt the Coal industry and any companies attempting to develop new Coal fired electrical generating plants.

That caused the feces to impact the rotating impeller (i.e. "the shit hit the fan" for those of you that went to college at UGA or Tennessee)and ten of twelve employees were asked to depart the office and not come back the Friday before Christmas.

I offer a hearty thanks to all the *%#@! tree hugging Greenie Weenie Democrats Liberals

Any way, I've spent most of the month of February when I wasn't playing Forensic engineer doing the groundwork for two proposals for so called "Green Energy" developments here in the southeast.

One project involves natural gas fired co generation of electricity and possibly steam for sale to an industrial park and the local electric utility. I already pretty much know all the fundamental technical details associated with that project although the B.S. factor associated with permitting the thing with the local, state, and federal government is still a bit of a daunting mystery.

For your reference in your quest of $1.00 gasoline and $50 per month electric bills, I'd say at this point that probably at least ONE THIRD of the cost of your electricity delivered to your house to heat your coffee and microwave your Eggo in the morning is due to Government induced Crappola relating to paperwork and the associated engineering it takes to overcome the restrictions the EPA and the tree huggers have placed on our industry.

So just pay your electric bill and shut up...don't come crying to me about having to cut back on things like food and new tires for the SUV (and realize that something like 40% of the cost of your gasoline is state and federal taxes--not profits for "EVIL" oil companies. )

That said, let me tell you what I've learned this past week relating to one of the other favorite "Green Energy Technologies"...

WIND POWER.

FIRST of all, the cost of "free" wind energy, or more specifically the state of the art wind turbines and electrical connections needed to get the "free" energy into the electrical grid, would be prohibitive without government subsidies.

In some places they're herding people together by conducting campaigns where people sign up to pay an additional 1.5 cents per KWH on their electric bill so they can reduce their "carbon footprint."

Even with the premium charge, it still many times makes the technology at best a break even endeavor for investors--but I guess breaking even is better than losing your ass in the stock market as the President and the US Congress continue to "Stimulate" the economy with other peoples' money.

The other thing about "free" green wind energy technology is that you can't just toss up a utility or industrial/commercial scale wind turbine just anywhere and throw the switch, cut your power wires to the utility, and go watch TV for "free."

Noooooooo Sirrrrr

There's only a small percentage of the land mass of the country that has wind blowing hard enough over enough hours to make building a "wind farm" viable.

Then there's the limitations the same aforementioned tree hugger greenie weenie's place on their beloved "green energy" windmills.

The same people which object to offshore oil and gas drilling because they worry about "oil spills" ruining the environment also lead the battle against expanding the available areas here in the US where there's adequate wind over shallow water in places like the Great lakes and along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf shorelines because people in the penthouse condos don't want to have their view spoiled by their beloved "green technology."

Senator Ted "Jabba the Hut" Kennedy (former swimming coach) of Massachusetts falls into that category with his objections to permits for a wind farm in sight of his family compound in New England.

The thing that really blew my mind was the contents of a paper produced by the US Fish and Wildlife Service--again driven by the sniveling booger eating Earth Day ecologists--all 57 pages worth of guidelines entitled "...Avoiding and Minimizing Wildlife Impacts from Wind Turbines."

If you listen to these bureaucrats, they basically don't wind turbines located where they could disturbe Prairie Dogs, Raptors, and migrating birds.

Funny thing, but if you look at the map of logical areas where "green" wind energy could be "farmed" or "harvested", this requirement eliminates virtually every area with better than average wind because a Goose or a Hawk might fly into the rotating blades of a turbine or the hum of the generator might make the Prairie Dogs change their mating habits or start living in the top of trees or something.

I thought farmers were shooting Prairie Dogs because their horses and cattle were breaking their legs stepping in holes?

And in the mountains here in Appalachia where there's good winds they're worrying about BAT's --rats with wings-- being affected.

Screw the bats...I want a 500 foot tall wind turbine on my roof and I'm never paying TVA another dime again if I could finance the project.

My industrial utility project could be a problem because it's on the Florida gulf coast so not only do I have to beat the Condo owners and developers, but I've got the Gulf on one side and the inter coastal on the other and the place is eat up with Sea Gulls and Owls and Hawks and God knows what else flying around and here's the kicker that will further raise the cost of the project.

If I can get past the Corps of Engineers and the Federal and State EPA's, and IF I can get the local government on board, and IF I can survive the public commentary period, and IF I can negotiate an acceptable power purchase agreement with the local electrical utility...THEN I might have to pay to have an "Avian and Wildlife Impact Study" conducted over a one to THREE year period of time in order to dig a hole and pour a concrete footing and string a single electrical wire.

Can you understand this bullshit?

Why in the world would anyone but the most zealous wild eyed fanatic even bother with doing business under those restrictions?

My grandfather ordered a 40' prefab farm windmill to pump water on his hand dug shallow well in the 1940's from Sears and Roebook, and when the truck showed up he and my uncles bolted that sucker together and stood it up in the air (without OSHA approved hardhats, safety glasses, and anti-fall harnesses.)

In less than a week they were pumping water for the house and the chickens,cows and a couple of dogs hanging around the property.

Under today's rules they'd have died of thirst and my Mother would just now be getting the permit in the mail this week--all two hundred and thirteen pages worth.

Am I wrong here?

Isn't there something totally screwed up with this whole "Green Energy" concept?

It doesn't work as a money making enterprise, thus it has to be government subsidized for anyone to afford or otherwise want to use it.

Just like everything else the government gets involved with the costs are greater than the benefits so they have to outlaw or tax the other profitable means of product delivery in order to get people to accept their alternative.

Then they proceed to legislate and regulate their endeavor into a corner where there is a SHORTAGE of the product they're producing and they come back to the consumer and demand more money and a change in lifestyle and usage in order to accommodate the results they get out of their inane, feckless process.

Just remember these concepts the next time you're sitting around the breakfast table and your government educated kid or your sniveling booger eating tree hugging eco friendly liberal neighbor starts talking about "man made global warming" and "green energy."

You want Green Energy?

Then you better get your wallet out because the main source of the "Green" in "Green Energy" is going to be YOUR MONEY.

and while you're at it, realize that you're probably going to be dressed like this while you're sitting around your crumbling house in the dark waiting out the latest "rolling electrical brownout."





...dammit