Monthly Archives: September 2009

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

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Ahhhh. The sounds of silence. Not the song that propelled Simon and Garfunkel to worldwide fame but rather the reason so many people prefer living on rural roads: to be away from the revving engines and gunshots that punctuate city streets.

There ought to be a law.

Vermont held its youth waterfowl hunting weekend Saturday and Sunday. Hunters under the age of 16 got to hunt ducks and geese statewide during this “introductory” season as long as an adult accompanied them. The adult may not hunt or carry a firearm. Both must have Vermont hunting licenses but neither the youth nor the adult is required to hold a state or federal duck stamp for the weekend.

I like to sleep in until 8 or 8:30 on weekends but the North Puffin farmhouse sits on the shore of a bay popular with ducks. Our neighbor Madeleine fed the ducks for many years and we on this bay had an informal moratorium on hunting shanties. It is a tranquil body of water.

Shotguns — even those pointed at the sky — pounding the dawn a few hundred feet from my bed do bust tranquility. Pretty hard on the ducks, too.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.

A South Puffin ordinance prohibits either Leatherface Hewitt or Lynyrd Skynyrd from starting a chainsaw within city limits before 9 a.m. It is an irritant to construction workers but pleasant for residents.

The regular duck season opens Saturday-week, October 10, in the Lake Champlain and Interior Vermont Zones but next Tuesday October 6 in the Connecticut River Zone. The split season Lake Champlain Zone runs just three days then restarts on October 24 and runs through December 18. Legal shooting hours for waterfowl begin one-half hour before sunrise every day of the season and end at sunset.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.

Duck hunting doesn’t come cheap.

25 rounds of Winchester® XPert® 12 Gauge 3-1/2 inch steel shotshells for waterfowl costs between $10 and $40 bucks, depending on size and where you buy them. A buck a shot.

Gas for the boat and the truck to tow it costs between $6 and $126 bucks, depending on how far you tow and how fast you (don’t) row.

A good night’s sleep: priceless.

F.D.A. Fell to a Push by Lawmakers

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Here’s a surprise. The FDA said that Democratic Senators Menendez and Lautenberg and Representatives Pallone and Rothman and its own former commissioner pushed the FDA to “politically” override the scientists. All four legislators sold out for peanuts–they received a total of $26,000 in “campaign contributions” from the manufacturer–shortly before leaning on the FDA.

These are the guys making Health Care Reform law, right? Jeezum, they’re not even good at being crooks.

Mark Twain wrote, “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.“

Campaign finance “reform,” like health care “reform” will have quotes around it until we not only throw da current bums out but we also throw out all da little rules and perks they have passed for themselves over the last few decades.

Senator Tries to Allay Fears

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A Senator “tries to allay fears”?

You gotta be kidding me. We ought to be far more afraid of what the pariahs in Washington do than anything else in the news this year.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) doesn’t like the Baucus bill.

The Baucus bill (along with HR3200) cuts the projected growth in Medicare by $4-500 billion over the next 10 years. Senator Nelson is afraid of one part of the biils, the one that cuts Medicare payments to insurance companies providing Medicare Advantage policies. That’s about $40 billion over those 10 years.

Cutting government spending is a good thing, right?

Adding (or keeping) government spending is a bad thing, right?

Not so fast.

The pariahs of Washington have balanced the Health Care Takeover by cutting the one place (Medicare) that already shifts some 75% of the cost of health care to Somebody Else. Cutting another $40 or $50 billion out of Medicare sounds like a great plan. Until you notice that it is the usual political sleight of hand. Cutting another $40 or $50 billion out of Medicare just shifts some $40 or $50 billion more of the cost of health care to Somebody Else.

I fear being Somebody Else.

Allay allay in free.

Senator Nelson is right not like the Baucus bill. But he is right for the wrong reasons.

Last Day of Summer

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Today is the last day of summer here in North Puffin.

[sigh]

Since the rotation axis of the Earth is almost perpendicular to its orbital plane, today is the last day in which we have more light than dark. An equinox occurs twice a year when the constant tilt of the Earth’s axis aligns the Sun vertically above the Equator. In the coming winter months the Earth’s axis will incline farther and farther away from the Sun and we will gladly entertain thoughts of Global Warming as we stoke the wood stove in a vain attempt at Local Warming.

Schizophrenic weather.

Pretty cool here this morning at 48̊ outside and 60̊ in the bathroom when I arose. On the other hand, it is sunny and mild with the thermometer headed perhaps for the upper 70s. That means an afternoon for shorts and sandals bracketed by flannels morning and night. Not cold enough to start the wood stove. Too cold not to. My fingers and my bald head got colder just typing that.

I need a sale on toques.

Last night I sat on the deck looking out over the Lake. A couple of errant ducks paddled around thinking duck-like thoughts and a lone fisherman cast his line occasionally from a boat drifting in the shallows. The late afternoon sun continued to warm me after a couple of hours of yard work. The deck offered an oasis for an adult beverage, a bowl of peanuts, and the final chapters of Wicked Prey, John Sandford’s latest beach book set against the Republican convention last year in Minnesnowta. The sunset painted the sky as character Letty West returned to school with her new name.

The lush, kaleidoscopic foliage display will start soon. Some of the brain dead locust leaves here in North Puffin began dropping in July but our canopy will stay mostly green for another week or maybe tow. As a photographer, I will celebrate and luxuriate in the colors of our hills and valleys but I will miss the long days of summer.

People ask, this time of year, “What’s your favorite season?” Fall is grand for its colors. Winter brings quiet solitude and peace. Spring signals rebirth. Me, I like Daylight Savings Time.

Some pan Daylight Savings as an artificial construct but I find it more comfortable to have that extra hour of daylight during my waking hours. In fact, I believe … I believe … I believe we should insist that Congress prescribe an extra hour of daylight in every day, winter and summer, spring and fall. Congress believes it can legislate human behavior; why not change some natural law, too.

Today is the last day in which we have more light than dark. I hope that is not a metaphor for the political dark ages now approaching.

SODY POP

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A new tax on soda pop has been proposed as a way to “fight obesity” and, just as an aside, provide billions for health care reform.

Taxing a “sin” is a really really great idea that really really works as a methodology to eliminate the sin.

Smoking incidence as a percentage of the population has declined pretty much every year since 1965. In 1998, 29.9% of the population smoked some form of tobacco. In 1998, 24.0% smoked. According to the latest National Health Interview Survey, 22.8 percent of the general adult population now smokes.

The rising price of cigarettes has gotten a few of the 50 million or so smokers to quit. The rising price of cigarettes may have kept a few of the 250 million or so non-smokers from starting.

Peer pressure, advertising, and (most important) bans on smoking in most public places is the real driver in the moderate decline in percentage. In absolute numbers, more people smoke more cigarettes today than in 1965.

Yeppers, raising taxes really works to change behavior.

Taxing soda pop is not about fighting obesity. Taxing soda pop is all about raising new billions in taxes. Taxing soda pop will not reduce the costs of health care “reform,” either. Those billions will go into the general fund.

Have you noticed that, every time Congress collects more taxes, the deficit goes … up?

The idea that taking more money from us will make us behave better is snake oil, pure and simple.

Hey! Here’s a behavior we could change. How about we throw out the boneheads who want to sell us this snake oil.