Free In Idaho!

Hillary Clinton seems to have a horrible case of “do-something” disease, which has vaulted her to the top of the earmarks list.  This is world class trough hogging folks!

As reported in The Hill newspaper, Clinton has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for 2009, almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator this year.

Queen of Pork, indeed… $342 million last year, to $2.3 BILLION next year… ssuuuuueeeeeeeee!  Here piggy piggy….

In making the blog rounds this morning I was struck by some photographs over at Instapundit.  It’s finals week at the law school apparently, and Glenn Reynolds shares three photographs of the students studying at the library (I’m guessing).  I was struck by the third one, of a student asleep under a blanket on a sofa.

There is no more of a fantasy world than an American college campus.  Where else will you ever have that kind of a life, that kind of a schedule?  Where else, besides your own home, can you pull out your blanket and fall asleep on the couch?  And, speaking as a “grown up”, where else would you even feel SAFE falling asleep on the couch?  Alright, that makes me a cynical grown up.  But really, can you name one public place you would feel safe enough to fall asleep? 

Maybe if my wife sat next to me, awake, with the Glock… but that’ll never happen in a “gun free zone” will it?   So the idea of going “condition white” in a public place gives me the shakes.

When we were in Seattle last week, I was very aware of being unarmed, vulnerable, and in enemy territory.  Washington and Idaho don’t have reciprocal CWLs, so even though I was a Washington license holder for many years, and have now been an Idaho holder for many years (under much stricter requirements, I might add), it is no longer legal for me to carry in Washington state.  Our youngest daughter lives on Capital Hill, which  is, according to wikipedia,

“the second most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, after Belltown (in northern downtown). It is the center of gay life in Seattle and also a center of the city’s counterculture, while also home to some of the city’s grandest mansions and many attractions.”

In order to take in the many delights of the small neighborhood restaurants and shops, and enjoy some of the mansions, the easiest thing to do is to walk everywhere.  The weather was beautiful, and it was very lovely.  But I was never at ease.  On one of our longer walks we went over to Trader Joe’s on Madison.  The kidlet pointed out some of the neighborhood “features”, including the halfway house that had been the residence of a man who recently commited the murder of a young woman on the street.  Mom was suitably frightened by that bit of news, but in listening to her point out things about her neighborhood I realized that the young lady is paying attention to her surroundings, and that is good.  I’d like to get her to go another level up though.

When we got back from the walk, which went through some “grandest mansions” type neighborhoods interspersed with “older and run-down” neighborhoods, I asked the girls if they had noticed the three mid-20’s gangsters who shadowed us for a couple blocks in the alley just east of us.  Neither of them had.  Did they notice when I picked up the pace, then waited at the corner even though no cars were near?  No.  I told them that I had been watching these three as they kept pace with us, stalking us perhaps, and that I had made eye contact with them as they crossed the parking lot.  I shifted my grocery bag to my left hand and put my right into my coat pocket, and I speeded up the pace.  Then when we had reached the next cross street, I wasn’t watching for cars, I was watching for the three thugs to come out of the alley.  We were a block off of the main street and I was ready to make a run for it if they had ignored my “alert and ready” signal.  They apparently saw it and left off the stalk, but the girls had missed it all.  Condition white.  I guess I have some teaching left to do.

It appears the markets are expecting the Fed to give the U.S. economy another goose tomorrow

Interest rate futures now expect just a quarter-percentage-point cut from the Fed Wednesday, which would bring the benchmark rate down to 2.0%. There is even a small camp that believes the Fed may leave rates on hold at 2.25%.

Tell me again how all of this easy money and this serial rate cutting is going to “save” the economy?  I’m amazed that not many people seem to make the connection between huge liquidity, inflation, and rising prices.  Falling dollar?  “Yeah, it’s because George Bush has screwed up the economy, man… it’ll be all better once we get a change.” Oh yeah, are you sure?  Along with math, science, American History, and American Government, another subject no one seems to learn anymore is basic economics.  From 1951, Ludwig von Mises

There is nowadays a very reprehensible, even dangerous, semantic confusion that makes it extremely difficult for the non-expert to grasp the true state of affairs. Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term “inflation” to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise.

I wonder if that’s why the government changed the Consumer Price Index about 5 years or so back, so nobody would notice that bread is over 2 bucks, gas is over 3, and milk is over 4?  If the CPI doesn’t go up, nobody needs a raise, and there isn’t any inflation, right?  von Mises continued

The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation. It follows that nobody cares about inflation in the traditional sense of the term. As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this technological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation.

Remember that, when the radio news guy comes on tomorrow afternoon and tries to tell you what a great deal it is that the Fed cut rates again, and now they’re going to “pause”.  And remember that rate cuts (increasing liquidity) take 6 to 9 months to work their way into the system.  Over the last 10 or 12 years the economic magic of the Fed has blown up and crashed a stock market bubble and then a housing bubble.  Where will all this liquidity go next?  Commodities, like wheat, corn, and gold (and rice)?    How much more micro-managing can this economy take?  I guess they’re bound and determined to find out.  Remember, these are the same geniuses that have given us the TSA, the ethanol program, and the “forever stamp”.  Kinda gives you that sour taste in your throat, doesn’t it?

Say, what are you gonna do with your “stimulus check”?  Me?  I might lay in a hoard of Tums…
 

How about a new state, to act as a buffer between us and the Peoples Republic of Oregon?  I noticed this little piece of wishful thinking news this morning, from late last week

The state of Eastern Oregon?

That’s what a small group from Hood River wants to see happen by 2010 if enough Eastern Oregonians show interest in creating the 51st state that would stretch from east of the Cascade Mountains to the Idaho border.

Their reasoning?  They don’t like the way the government in Salem treats the rest of the state.  What?   Oregon is pretty much Portland and Salem, right?  But that isn’t the way they feel in Eastern Oregon.  The dry side of the state is much more independant and conservative minded than the “all wet” side… rather like Washington in that respect.  The culture and the politics are very different on the two sides of the state. And I hear the same grumblings here in Idaho (what do you mean, Boise isn’t a state?  That’s why they named the college that, didn’t you know?  And all the Lefty bloggers live in Boise, don’t they?  Who cares about Jerome, or Twin, or Grangeville, except the twenty people who live there?  It’s all happening in Boise, right?).  Haven’t we all seen these efforts before?  I seem to remember a couple of attempts over the last 30 years in Washington, and there is at least one fiction novel about such a thing taking place. But so far, all have remained unrealized, and not even gaining the traction that some third party start ups have gotten. But they remain just as interesting, I think.

A gentleman by the name of Paul Koch is heading this one up, and he admits the details have yet to be worked out, particularily where it comes down to funding the new state.

“I honestly don’t have a clue,” he said. “However, in talking to people about this, we’re thinking about using some new techniques, new approaches … and having a very small, centralized state government and relying on cities and counties to deliver most of the services.”

I like that answer!  Small government… what a concept, what a new approach.  He didn’t say anything about providing welfare, health insurance, or free mortgages either!  You gotta love it.  It would be interesting to go to some of the meetings, just to watch folks get involved in their government and try to think through what it would take to make it different.  Beats “Operation Chaos” and the Obamessiah all to heck, don’t you think?  (and don’t bring up McCain, or I’ll know you’ve never read this blog)

It seems to be “all Obama’s Pastor, all the time” on most of the radio stations today.  Are you as sick of hearing from this guy as I am?  The MSM keeps reminding us how smart he is, his degree, his multiple languages, and on and on.  He mentioned his military service, and used it to take a swipe at Vice President Cheney who did not serve in the military.  Careful with your slams there sir, Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh, and John Kerry also had military service.  Ronald Reagan did, but Joe Lieberman and Bill Clinton didn’t.  Nor did Jesse Jackson or Louis Farrakhan.  Nor did Barack Obama.  It has nothing to do with patriotism. Cheap shot, Rev… but it’s still about Barack Obama, not Rev Wright.

Are we impressed yet?  Nothing I’ve heard today takes away from the fact that this man Wright is an intimate advisor to a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.  This advisor is a bigot and a racist.  He calls himself a Christian, but he preaches a political gospel based on race, black vs white, and class, slaves vs masters, and wealth, evil rich vs oppressed poor.  A lot of this same rhetoric we’ve heard come out of Barack Obama’s mouth as well, offering the government as the source of salvation for flawed men, and the oppressive society they’ve built. 

Barack Obama’s progressive/socialist/salvation by goverment speeches, and his association with radical leftist Vietnam-era terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, are simply pieces of the puzzle.  Reverend Wright is another piece.  For me, they all call into question the suitability of the candidate, who at the very least has not stood up and walked away from this kind of mentoring.  And does saying that make me some kind of intolerant racist myself?  Hardly.  I think it is a perfectly legitimate way of judging the candidate.  The more I know about Obama, the less suitable I find him to be.  Too bad, because all the fainting rallies and rock star treatment was amusing while it lasted.  But it’s still going to take more than the hype of a well rehearsed stump speech and a bunch of media groupies to get elected.  And THAT, my dear readers, is what I call “hope”.

I got a chance to go out to the desert this weekend and see how a couple different handloads shoot in the new rifle.  I still have very little experience shooting a scoped rifle, so I’m keeping it at 100 yards for the time being.  I’ll push it out as I go along, but right now I’m trying to learn breathing, proper sight picture in the scope, letting the trigger break by itself without me jerking it… you know the drill. 

For those who keep track of these things, the loads I’m working on are .308 Win, once fired Win brass, Federal primers, 168 grain Sierra Match Kings over 42.3 to 43.3 grains of IMR-4064.  I liked the results from the 43.3 gr load so far, so before I go out again I’ll roll a bunch of those and get down to some serious practice.  Near as I can find out, that is a pretty close dupe for Federal’s Gold Medal Match, but substantially cheaper handloaded.

Actually, all of this is a pretty flimsy excuse for going out into the desert and lying on the matt in the sunshine.  “Hey Bill, are you asleep?”  “Huh?  ah, no.  Just letting the barrel cool…”

Sunday Music for the last Sunday in April is “Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven”

 Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,
 to the throne thy tribute bring;
 ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
 evermore God’s praises sing.
 Alleluia!  Alleluia! 
 Praise the everlasting King.

 Praise the Lord for grace and favor
 to all people in distress;
 praise God, still the same as ever,
 slow to chide, and swift to bless. 
 Alleluia!  Alleluia! 
 Glorious now God’s faithfulness.

 Fatherlike, God tends and spares us;
 well our feeble frame God knows;
 motherlike, God gently bears us,
 rescues us from all our foes. 
 Alleluia!  Alleluia! 
 Widely yet God’s mercy flows. 

 Angels in the heights, adoring,
 you behold God face to face;
 saints triumphant, now adoring,
 gathered in from every race. 
 Alleluia!  Alleluia! 
 Praise with us the God of grace.

I’ve never been a believer in man-caused global warming.  I remember the first Earth Day, 38 years ago, and the “concensus” then was that we are heading for a period of global cooling.  And yes, there were books about the coming ice age.  So I’ve been amused, annoyed, and scoffing at all the AlGore generated glowball warming BS we’ve had jammed down our throats the last few years.

It seems appropriate that one of our infrequent trips to Seattle coincided with Earth Day this year.  I left the lights on in the house, and we drove all the way up and back, using countless gallons of abundant yet horribly mismanaged gasoline, thank you environuts.  And while driving there and back, we saw plenty of anecdotal evidence that the new ice age is finally upon us.  Witness this brand new glacier forming at the top of Snoqualmie Summit in Washington State, elevation a mere 3022 feet above sea level.  I can’t remember but a couple of years when the snow was piled this high, this late in the season.  It’s the end of APRIL, for crying out loud!  Thank God for global warming!  Otherwise we’d all be living in igloos by now…. sheesh!

Light blogging for the next couple of days… planetary alignment, blah blah, cosmic rip, blah blah, enemy territory, blah blah.

Sunday Music today is “Blessed Assurance”

 Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
 O what a foretaste of glory divine!
 Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
 born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

Refrain:
 This is my story, this is my song,
 praising my Savior all the day long;
 this is my story, this is my song,
 praising my Savior all the day long.

 Perfect submission, perfect delight,
 visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
 angels descending bring from above
 echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
 (Refrain)

 Perfect submission, all is at rest;
 I in my Savior am happy and blest,
 watching and waiting, looking above,
 filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
 (Refrain)