The Native Iowan

Just had one of those 13 minute, very, very electric, tropical storms rush over us. At one point we had ignition right over our heads. Bright flashes. Nice loud cracks, and kerbannggs…

Exactly like the storms W.E. write about in his science…

Very nice.

It’s about 3 miles off now, still powerful, still nice… one last loud fire-cracker pop, then a low grumble that carries into the distance. The rain still pelting. The air is alive. On the verandah here you may even be tad bit too high but it’s worth it… the whole interactive experience… that one just shook the house…

very nice

Band width stuffed due to the storm. This did not go out. So I continue…

I was wrong. We just caught part of it. Not a 13 minute storm but a much longer one. We have ignition over head now, again. Just had a flash and crack outside the house, got the powerline and popped the main fuse… cerrrrack!!! Sparks in the yard then power off. Still tingling…

gotta start the genset to get on line now…

Went down and inspected the damage. there is none. Too rainy to go start the genset so will wait.

The storm has turned around. Coming back but spent of electricity. Just wind and rain. Rain coming down on a 45 degree slant.

very nice indeed…

Ran over to Liapari this morn. Had to talk to Noel and check in on the Alcol.

Seas were running rough.

The briney blue was dishing up a big bashing for all intrepid travelers out n about today.

Do dig the briney blue…

just in, much of this is old newz, but then it is all worth rereading..

GREAT TRUTHS

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.

— John Adams

2. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.

— Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.

— Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

— Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

— George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

— G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

— James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

— Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

— P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

— Frederic Bastiat, French economist (1801-1850)

11. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

— Ronald Reagan (1986)

12. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

— Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free!

— P.J. O’Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.

— Voltaire (1764)

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!

— Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.

— Mark Twain (1866)

17. Talk is cheap…except when Congress does it.

— Anonymous

18. Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

— Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.

— Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

— Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class…save Congress.

— Mark Twain

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.

— Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

— Thomas Jefferson

25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

— Aesop

FIVE BEST SENTENCES

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.  [Although you could lighten the burden of poverty by doing so.]

2. What one person receives without working for…  another person must work for without receiving.  [The falsity of this is seen when one factors in quantity and quality.]

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.  [Wrong–according to John Nash, Amartya Sen–Nobel Economists–and to Jesus Christ and others:  We receive more from giving than from taking or getting.]

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation!  [Statistics indicate that less than 20% of the people are poor–and that those poor who do not want to work is about 20% of that 20%.  In other words:  4% feel that they do not have to work.  This is a far cry from the “half” in the sentence.]