America's disease, the entitlement mentality

IMO One of the biggest problems with the U.S. right now is the huge number of people who are getting some form of benefits from the government but absolutely don't feel like they are taking welfare, a government handout etc .....

The Cloward/Pivens were absolutely brilliant in setting up SS and medicare as Ponzi schemes.  Today's retiree's and soon to retire baby boomers feel like they have paid in and are entitled to those benefits.  Most have no clue that they are getting way more than they put in, way more than even equivalent contributions to a very successful mutual fund would have generated.   Those that do know, still feel like, "well I was told this would be here for me so I planned on it and it would be unfair to take it away now".

The government made promises and I kept up my part of the bargain just because the country didn't plan correctly for how long folks would live, population and GDP growth etc I am entitled to this; even though I'm getting way more than I ever put in.

Then there is "Unemployment Insurance"  Everyone feels entitled to keep taking it as long as its available because "they took those premiums while I was working"  Again,  premiums cover less than 26 weeks but since the government is offering up to 99 weeks and calling it UE no one feels like they are taking a handout.  They all feel like "I earned this by working before I lost my job."  

Then the most insidious is the SSDI and welfare that blacks especially but now other minorities are told they are entitled to "because this country got rich off the backs of the slaves and taking land from natives and weaker countries, so they owe you a pay out now"   Also I'm sure that 'the urban poor' take SSDI payments for mental illness with the thought of "well you crackers denied me any kind of decent education or job opportunities and that has disabled me from being able to be productive"  --actually they have a point.   LBJ and hordes of bigoted teachers, protected by the NEA and local unions have ruined the quality of education for poor urban blacks and all other students that now go  through the dumbed down schools after 'desegregation'.    That was quite a con, convincing blacks themselves to push to get stuck with bigoted teachers who would refuse to teach their kids much of anything.

And of course there are all the government funded employees.   Most of them still cling to illusions that they are nobly foregoing higher pay in the private sector, that their job benefits the country etc etc.    I don't suffer any illusions that I am not getting a sweetheart deal but it is hard to walk away from that sweetheart deal.   The problems of the commons and all that,  its not like the country will reduce its annual deficit by my salary + overhead costs if I would leave. 

Need to stop burning daylight

So why am I typing instead?   I'm falling into trap of waiting for L instead of just riding and she can join if she makes it out.   She's probably burned out from driving etc and is not going to make it today but I need to take advantage of lovely sunshine.   Yesterday I skipped riding because it was overcast and felt kind of cold and damp and dad was going to the Wild Animal Sanctuary to give them a check for donations folks included in sympathy cards after mom died.

  TWAS was pretty cool,  I enjoyed it, the only cloud was thinking how much mom would have enjoyed it and she never made it over there.  You always think there will be plenty of time to see stuff that is near where you live.   If we had known they were so set up for visitors and with wheelchair/scooter rentals might have made the effort to go.  I was thinking I didn't want to take the time yesterday when I've been feeling time squeezed but it was very much worth the time.  Might even take visitors over there if we get any.  

But I did decide that I should probably gift the bulbs mom had ordered to someone.  Sis had said she might take some but she didn't :(   (I forgot to ask her when she was here both trips)    But they will probably be fine if she plants in spring except maybe won't bloom this year.    But they will be a burden not a gift to me if I carve out time to plant them and then have more pressure to keep flower gardens watered and I am not going to do that to myself.  Better they go where they will be enjoyed rather than resented.  

what to do, what to do.

I really don't know that I should stay on at a place where the newly hired president of the org quotes Che Guevera.  More probably attributed a quote that lots of people said to Fidel Castro's executioner.  Nothing wrong with a revolutionary sentiment wrt to maybe we can get rid of some of the old costly weather information collection schemes the big gub'mint agencies use now and replace them with our comparatively tiny budget program.  But if you say "to quote Che"  then you must be in the idiot crowd that glorifies him rather than knowing enough actual facts to revile the man.

That is just a sympton.  Most of the place voted for Barry, thinking they were saving science from budget cuts and preserving freedoms.  They have no clue that they voted to burn the country down just to (and its only a maybe in our case) keep the government cash flowing more freely for a few more years.     One thing for the people to vote based on greed now and an 'oh someone will fix things before they break down and kill us in 10-20 years'.  But to think that voting for the SCOAMT was a rationale decision that benefited the country?   I just don't know how people can really have that kind of blinders on, and some of these people are smarter than me wrt to understanding complex science.

They also have no clue that 100s of billions of dollars in government grants written first based on "OMG we might be going to burn up the planet we have to study this" and then drifting into responding to solicitations to "study how catastrophic will global warming be" and etc.  is not orders of magnitude bigger wrt to expectation bias etc than the paltry bit of money some skeptics take from "BIG OIL"  

It is very hard to leave a healthy paycheck with flexible hours but I don't want to feel like I'm selling out every damn week just for a job when I honestly believe these idiots voted to send the country into a deep recession and are scaring themselves with bullshit wrt to Global Warming.    CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but there is no good reason to think that there is a consistent factor of 3-5 multiplication effect from the bit of CO2 warming evaporating more water from the oceans.   Water  has three phases and only the vapor form is a green house gas.   They have no idea whether we will get albedo effects that halve the CO2 warming at times due to cloud formations.  No one knows cloud physics that well. 

CJ is better

I should call his office and request the vet to call me at my work # with some specifics but voice message left on friday said the high liver enzyme #"s which the Glenwood Springs vet thought might mean liver disease for CJ had fallen.  one # was still high but Dr Mike said it does change more slowly.  We will check again in about 2 weeks.    --more $ of course.   Saturday I moved CJ into a pen that the mini's used to have access to.  I had dad make a hole in the fence so CJ and mini's could share a water tank. 

This is working pretty good.   CJ and Black Diamond are both getting a bit of extra exercise running the fence line 'challenging' each other.   They can use the exercise.

Saturday I used the trick dad showed me with the tractor bucket to pull some of the built up wet manure back from the potty spots and filled in one low spot that was just dirt with a scoop of sand.   Sunday I picked out the rotted manure and bit of leftover hay from one low spot and put in 2 scoops of sand there and picked up a couple scoops of manure and hauled to the manure pit.   I need to ask dad if he can/will tackle AJ's pen and if not hire someone to come in with a skid steer.  Its a big mess and I feel like I don't have enough hours in a week to get to it. 

I'm thinking maybe we should try to get a boarder or housemate wanting to trade work for horse board or rent.   I can barely keep up and dad is lonely and would love to have someone to yak with.  I'll have to ask him about doing it.   He may not feel like he wants an outsider around but I'm feeling squeezed and its making me cranky too much of the time.   

Oh how I hate "progress"

I dislike change and progress of any sort means change.   Unlike the 'liberal' (Democrat party) voters I do understand that change is inevitable.   The notion that mankind could freeze the climate into the fairly ideal state of the late 20th century if only we would reduce our carbon based energy usage is so laughable.   Aside from the natural effects that we don't even understand yet its clear to anyone with a functioning brain that China, India, Brazil et al are and will continue to ramp up their CO2 production at rates far exceeding what cuts Europe and the U.S. can make.    But I digress.

Yesterday my I-mac at work froze when I was reading email first thing when I got in and kept freezing through 3 powering off and restarting cycles.   Finally I tried discarding my ergonomic keyboard and my ergonomic mouse substitute.  Switchrf to the miserably under-sized keyboard and the magic trackpad that came with the computer.  Apparently the latest automatic update to ward off hackers could no longer deal with the old keyboard and  my beloved keyboard tray with a mouse roller that kept me from having to reach way off to the side to reach a traditional mouse.   The computer has been happy since I switched the keyboard and mouse out. 

I however am quite annoyed at having to give up my comforts to keep the finicky computer going.  And this is stinking Apple, aren't they supposed to be about making things easy for the user?    This kind of progress is as useless as the political progress the Dems have going.  Make the user the slave to the cpu.   Make the private producer a slave to the state and its welfare system.   Yeah that will really help my personal productivity and get the national economy, which is still what funds our government, humming along, NOT.   

CJ: most expensive plug horse in the world?

I'm sure there are folks out there that have spent even more money on horses with even less utility but I needed a quick title.

CJ is our pack horse.   He can be ridden as well but has never been ridden beyond basic levels.  He is an easy going "good old boy" type of horse and will carry a rider or an elk nicely enough going along with a buddy or two and that is all we use him for.   He isn't really conformed to be very athletic and seems to have some early onset hock arthritis and a couple/three years ago a hind fetlock was bothering him. 

 He IS quite good for the basic "packer horse" duty: last year I never tightened the saddle one morning when I  put my rifle in the hard sided scabbard on CJ (I was not even trying to carry it on my AYRAB greenie) after dad had done initial saddling for me because my shoulder was weak.     The saddle was going to the side with the rifle scabbard bumping CJ on a back leg and only the hiking hunters we passed saying something brought it to my attention --   CJ had just kept walking along, not fussing a bit about things.

But two years ago sis had to bring down an extra horse because CJ got sick with pigeon fever right before we going to go hunting.   This year he had a colic episode up at the hunting campgrounds after I had come home and it was just dad and sis up there so they had to run him to the vet in Meeker, then friday he was better but not right so they took him to Glenwood Springs to get put on IV fluids.  The GS vets think there was a liver problem that caused the colic.  Possibly CJ ate something toxic and his liver will regenerate, but we might have put several hundred dollars into saving  a horse that is going to advance with the liver issues and not even be around or be able to do the annual pack horse duties next year. 

Oh well, he is a sweet thing.  Not just tolerant with packing stuff, but just super easy for managing.  Easy to give shots to,  If we put him in with an "I'm the boss" horse he just goes to the other feed every time they push him out.   If he is with a horse that he is bigger than he doesn't push them around other than keeping them out of the first food he comes to (very rarely even bothers to check if their food might be better unless the hay happens to be less palatable that day, or he is in a rare mood.) 

 I hope it is either a temporary thing after eating some toxic plants or we can manage his condition and have him do packing duties for at least a couple more years.   Darned big lug is just one of the loveable lug types. 

Finally checked some vote totals 2008 vs 2012

Hearing that Romney got fewer votes than McCain just rang false for me.  Well that is because in Colorado he got over 100,000 more votes than McCain did in 2008.   If those had been flipped votes the state would have gone to Romney.   But the Dems dug out more O-zombie votes in Denver, Boulder and Larimer counties for Barry than they lost to Romeny.   Even in Denver county, Romney got 10K more votes than McCain.   But the machines say 24K more folks voted in 2012 than 2008 and Barry picked up 14K additional votes to Romney's 10K gain.  

Oh well.   I had feared that a Romney win but the D's holding the senate might be awful.  They did hold the senate as well as Barry getting more votes so perhaps the Dem's will own the mess they are creating in spite of the MarxSpewMedia's efforts to pin it on the conservatives.    I think the country has passed into the point where folks are voting in politicians to raid the 'national treasury' to hand out trinkets to the masses*  --that 200 year lifespan that democracies and democratic republics tend to have.  The only question is how long will it take to break down completely and how many years of misery will follow the breakdown.    I think we got some extra time by being a republic but the rule of law and republic protections are eroding fast from my perspective so I think that we will soon see the cycle complete with a slide into tyranny. 

* http://www.wrisley.com/cycle.htm  

Hello president santa claus

Rush's reason on why Barry won.  Makes quite a bit of sense and the GOP needs to be careful not to rush into positions trying to lure voters that a) won't begin to compete with government as Santa Claus and b) will just lead to more people staying home even though they do understand that making government Santa Claus will collapse the government sooner or later and probably close to sooner if they feel like the GOP totally disrespects them for their views on morality or needing to have rule of law and a secure border or whatever.

I truly expected to be in a position of Romney won, now how do we make sure he sticks to getting rid of Obamacare and how do we get skittish GOP congressional politicians to actually reduce spending.   So now I have to decide just how to react to this.   Moving to Canada, with entrenched government healthcare and high taxes + very limited gun rights (even though I don't like shooting guns personally -- I have sensitive ears and I'm not very steady aiming) and the very scary to me free speech limitations thanks to their dumb HumanRightsCommissions that the commies and muzzies use to try to stifle debate does not hold any appeal.  I don't speak Spanish and would have a hard time trusting any of those countries to stay free even if they are currently better which I rather doubt let alone the hassle of importing horses.

Canada is the only option I can see and even though its been trending more conservative and we just let the looters win politically I don't see it as being better yet.  I'm not running a business so lower corporate taxes and hitting the people who 'benefit' from the 'free' healthcare directly doesn't really help me out.  At least it makes sense vs telling folks they can have something for nothing though.

 I guess I should look into their welfare system, that is a big problem here.  We have inner city schools that groom youth to be welfare collectors rather than teaching them anything and a system that encourages life long dependence on SSDI or other government handouts and that seems unlikely to be fixed in my lifetime.   If Canada has a system that doesn't encourage being on the dole as a way of life it may now be or will be by 2016 a better option for someone who doesn't want to encourage robbing people who create jobs to buy votes from people who think they are entitled to have cell phones and flat screens w/o working + have bureaucrats telling them they'll lose net $/week if they choose to leave the dole and they just aren't smart enough to ever get the good jobs that pay better than being on the dole.   Our U.S. welfare system right now is so pernicious,  it really makes people feel they are trapped in 'the ghetto'  no one shows them they have the key and could leave any time.

I should have stayed up at hunting camp

Well not really I am getting a bit of work done but I am so distracted wondering if the polling has been SO bad in order to allow Dems lots of wiggle room for their fraud or is just wishful thinking by the marxists in the media and they will cry foul when (please god save this nation) they lose.   I listened for a few minutes until I couldn't stand any more to some Dem talking head on radio yesterday implying that the Repubs steal the elections with the electronic voting machines because the polling doesn't match results.   (and we conservatives worry because Diebold is now held by a Spanish company with significant shares held by Soros.)  

 Umm the crappy polling results couldn't possibly be because the polling is not a random sample of every 10th or whatever voter and Dems seek out the college girls majoring in sociology to brag about voting for the socialists and the grumpy Repubs veer away from them because we like the idea of secret ballots.    I'm reading reports of exit polls showing Barry leading.   I partly think that some of this is those effing liberals who think they can sidestep any direct consequences just panting to have some riots when their JEPOS loses.  

I know so many conservatives who are so fed up they are just about chanting "bring it" to any mention that inner city yoots might riot.   I also don't see them sitting at home and risking congress seats even if they think the presidency is lost, they will make every effort to turn back the marxist hordes via the ballot box first   ---then will come 'striking' rather than continuing to work to support a bunch of ungrateful marxist mobs  --again with a "bring it" mindset should mobs come looking to do some direct looting.   Hopefully Romney wins handily, the media is shown up as the partisan idiots they are, and Barry and the Dems turn off more misguided white guilt and 'moderate' voters with their petulant behavior and give the "tea party" more fuel to drag this country back to being the capitalist and "property rights for all, not just friends of the party in power" option amongst countries.   Folks that think socialism is so darned wonderful can just emigrate their sorry selves to one of the plethora of nations that practice socialism on various scales.  I hope a huge group of like minded, but formerly apolitical folks has been awakened and will hammer that message out as long as necessary.