Catching Air During Irene

I have a cousin in RI who runs a marine training school. He often moonlights rescuing boaters in Narragansett Bay. He spent Sunday on the water catching boats that got loose from their moorings. They bring them to a safe harbor and then collect a salvage fee from the insurance company. It is not work for the feint of heart.

Tail Count

The annual Nutria hunt has been tallied and the total added up to 338,512 Nutria tails turned in for the $5 bounty. This is down about 24% from last year but is still close to the programs goal of eliminating 400,000 Nutria per year from the Louisiana marshes.

If you do the math, that's about $1.7 million paid out.

A Medical Anomoly

Evidently I'm a bit of a freak in the medical world. In my earthly residence of some 6 decades I have managed to avoid any serious medical procedures - no surgeries. Not even tonsils. It was a topic of some interest to the medicos as I went through the pre-op sign in for my bionic knee.

What can I say? Unless you had a bone poking through your skin or you were cut deep enough to see bone, you were treated by Mom (Well, she was a RN!) It's just they way it was back in the day.

Bearing Repair - FAIL

So I got the injection in the knee. It wasn't the most comfortable of procedures but at least it was over quickly. It seemed to be working fine. I was just getting used to not anticipating pain at every step when, after about three weeks, everything went south. The knee starting hurting worse than ever and I was limping around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I visited the orthopod this week and scheduled a partial knee replacement for about 2 weeks from now. The procedure and recovery should provide great blog fodder.

Cajun Funeral

Three friends from Church Point, Louisiana were asked, "When you in your casket, and your friends and church members are mourning over you, what would you like dem to say?"

Thibodeaux said: "I would like dem to say, I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man."

Fontenot commented: "I would like dem to say, I was a wonderful teacher, and servant of da church, who made a huge difference in people's lives."

Boudreaux said: "I'd like dem to say, 'Look, he's movin!'"

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Son of a Gun

One of my nieces is married to a Marine door gunner. She is expecting. At a recent family gathering she was asked about the baby's name. (They know it's a boy) The name they selected was "Dillon". Somebody asked how they arrived at that name. She said that they agreed that if it was a girl, she would pick the name and if a boy, he would.

"Is the baby named after someone in his family?"

"No. There is no one with that name in his family."

"Why did he pick Dillon?"

"I don't know. But that's the name of the company that makes his mini-gun!"

Green Lies and Taxes

By now you have probably heard about the agreement Obama made with the auto industry to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. It will be achieved by raising the CAFE 5% every year starting in 2017. While everyone accepts that this will increase the cost of a car, how much that increase will be is uncertain, but the media gives us the good news that the fuel cost savings will make u p for the increased cost of a new car.

Really? Let’s take a look at it and see if that statement passes the smell test.

Let’s say you drive 15,000 miles per year and let’s say that you drive a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon. Over the course of a year, you will burn 500 gallons of gasoline (15,000 miles divided by 30 miles per gallon). If we assume that gasoline costs $4.00 per gallon, you will spend $2,000 for gasoline.

Now, if you suddenly get a new car that gets twice the mileage (60 mpg) it stand to reason that you will burn half as much gasoline and spend half as much money. Therefore, you will spend $1,000 on gas and your savings for the year will be $1,000!

Do you really think that this savings will offset the additional cost of the car that will meet Obama’s CAFE standard? Anyone? Bueller?

If the additional cost of these high mileage cars is $5,000, you will either need to drive 75,000 miles in a year or the price of gasoline will need to increase to $20.00 per gallon. Does either of these things seem likely?

How much are you personally willing to pay to improve the environment because, believe me folks, the additional cost of these high mileage cars will passed on to the consumer and the difference will not be balanced by fuel savings.

There is a saying that if you put a frog in hot water, it will jump out. But if you put him in cold water and slowly raise the temperature, he will stay and boil to death. The government is treating you like a frog. It will slowly ramp up the cost of automobiles hoping you won’t notice the personal cost.

Let’s call this agreement what it is – It’s a tax on the American people. It’s as much of a tax as if the government increased your tax bracket but they do it with regulations instead of changing the tax code. And the frogs don’t notice.

RNC Phone Solicitation

I got a call last night from the RNC soliciting donations. I quickly informed the caller that I would not be donating this year. He then tried another sell and asked if I would donate at a more moderate level. That did it.

"I will not donate to the Republican Party because they totally failed to get government spending under control. The proof of that is in the current melt down of stocks. What makes you think I want to give money to the very guys that caused my 401k to lose 25% of its value?

IF I donate, it will be to the Tea Party. BUT DO NOT CALL ME AGAIN!"

And seriously, folks, a chipmunk could beat Obama at this point.

Mexico Sues Alabama?

Mexico and 15 other Central and South American countries have sued the State of Alabama to block their new immigration law. Huh? since when can a foreign nation sue a US State?

This cannot be allowed to stand. If it does, before you know it you will every left wing country suing individual states.

Their complaint is that Alabama's immigration law will lead to racial profiling. The new law is strict and even provides for penalties for giving a ride to an illegal alien. But I've travelled enough to know that the Alabama law is no more onerous than the laws of many countries I have worked in.

I hope Alabama prevails. If they don't, I'd like see Alabama declare war on Mexico. After all, Alabama provided air support to Brigade 2506 at Playa Giron.

Thought for the Day

Obama saying he going to focus on jobs is like the manager of a brothel saying he is going to promote abstinence.

Book Review - The Ranger

A veteran Army Ranger comes home to attend the funeral of his uncle, the sheriff of a down and out town in rural northern Mississippi. Not only does he find that his uncle died under mysterious circumstances, but there is trouble in town in the form of several meth labs and a failed real estate scheme. You can guess what happens from here.

While the plot is very familiar (at least to those of us old enough to remember Bufford Pusser) Ace Atkins story telling ability made it difficult for me to put this book down. I kept wanting to get to the next section to find out what was going to happen and he had enough surprises to keep the plot development exciting. Like his other books, Atkins descriptions of the territory bring it to life for the reader although the town, and county, are fictional. I hope that he will continue with the adventures of this character. It may be a while, though. I think he next book will be the newest in the Robert Parker series which he is ghost writing.

Head Count

The Saudi Swordsman rid the earth of 9 murderers last month in a spurt of executions. The year to date total for the Kingdom is now 23.

Work could slow down for the swordsman next month as Ramadan started on Aug 1 and Islam likes to show that it is a merciful religion during this period.