September 28. 2009 by Dick.

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.

Posted in Community, Society, Random Access | 2 Comments »

September 25. 2009 by Dick.

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.

Posted in Throw Da Bums Out, Quickies | 1 Comment »

September 24. 2009 by Dick.

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.

Posted in ObamaCare, Throw Da Bums Out, Politics & News, Random Access | 1 Comment »