Your Tax Dollars at WORK

Thought For The Day  "The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." Will Rogers 1879 - 1935  Native American cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, social commentator and motion picture actor.

Your Tax Dollars  At Work  As April 15 descends upon us once again, I thought it would be fitting to reflect on  the spending habits of our federal government.  There is an old joke that goes something like this: When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing   to 300 degrees Celsius. The Russians used a pencil.    Even though the above story is more fable than fact, the examples listed below are as real as a heart attack and you just might have one when you discover how our elected officials have been spending your money!    The National Institute of Health  spent $387,000 to study the effects of Swedish massages on rabbits.  Uncle Sam Looking for Romance on the Web $914,000  to "explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction, taking a global perspective, while looking back across time as far as the ancient Greeks."   NIH Spent Over $800,000 to develop material to help parents learn how to better negotiate with their children to eat vegetables. Free Luxury Gym Memberships For Federal Bureaucrats  The federal government is all about cutting the fat, just as long as 1) the fat comes from their waistlines instead of their budgets, and 2) taxpayers are forced to pay for the whole exercise. Over $3,000,000 on a shrimp treadmill study to test whether sickness would impair the mobility of the crustaceans. It was determined that sick shrimp had less mobility and thus were more likely to not be able to avoid being caught.    $171,000 To Study How Monkeys Gamble   The researchers contend the study could "provide nuance to our understanding of free will" or even "inform treatment for gambling addiction." If scientists wanted to see a bunch of dumb primates gamble with money that wasn't theirs, they could've just gone to a congressional appropriations committee hearing.   BIRD IS THE WORD: The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers. FELLAS, GET YOUR GUNS: The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $681,387 on a study to confirm that a man appears taller, stronger, and manlier when holding a firearm. THAT'S ILLOGICAL, CAPTAIN: The Internal Revenue Service spent $4.1 million on a lavish conference in 2010 for 2,609 of its employees in Anaheim, California. Expenses included $50,000 for line-dancing and "Star Trek" parody videos, $135,350 for outside speakers, $64,000 in conference "swag" for the employees, plus free meals, cocktails, and hotel suite upgrades.  $175,587 for a study on the link between cocaine and the mating habits of quail. r GET IN THE HOLE! Did you know that golfers who imagine that the hole is bigger boost their confidence and accuracy? Thanks to the National Science Foundation, Purdue University, and $350,000 in taxpayer money, now you do. The National Science Foundation (NSF) launched a project in 2005 to study the oddities of the duck penis. In 2009, they funded an additional $385,000 to continue its work. The key finding of the study was that the duck penis has a corkscrew-like shape. Hoping to increase its reach with an international audience, the state department spent $630,000 "buying fans" for its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Pimping the tax code to subsidize Nevada brothels with $17.5 million And last but not least, if your wife is angry at you and you don't want her to stay that way, you might want to avoid passing along the findings of this government study: Wives would find marriage more satisfying if they could calm down faster during arguments with their husbands, according to government-funded research. Cost $335,500.

Hay Making

Even when one works out of a home office as I do, I still need to spend some quality time with Peggy.  When she seems me head down, engaged, charging as hard as I do she sometimes thinks I am angry or avoiding talking to her. I'm not but it's perception. It's hard to find balance,  but when I am on a project I get very focused.  I can't talk, I have to keep going. Happens every year like this.  So instead  of going into the city to church I sat and held her hand last night.  I feel bad for her to be this busy.. yet.. much of the income we develop happens in 5 months, 3 in spring, 2 in fall.  So I must be busy making hay while the sun is shining.

Hillary's New Logo just BEGGED for it

What DO we owe?

There is a huge underclass of poor, uneducated, unskilled and misdirected people in the USA.  Some have put this number at 66% of our population. That is a horror number. They are all races, all colors, all kinds of tribes, nations and description. They are the poor.  The poor that Jesus said we would always have.  He was right.  We do.

I hear it said that we don't owe them a living.  That they are lazy.  I don't agree.. but can they be even helped?

I have been thinking this over.  They are needy. They DO vote to supplement their need.  Poor Democrat is almost legendary. 

A few are able to rise above, out of their poverty.  As long as some well meaning person doesn't come and put their arm around them, connect them to every form of state and church subsidy and train them how to stay on the gravy train they may have a chance.

So what do we owe them?  Education, it's free (mostly) but really badly delivered.  Job training.. sure if they show up.  Showing up is the problem.  Vocational training?  Snap cards.  What do we owe them?

I am not being hard hearted, I'm asking an honest question that demands an answer.  How far, how high, how deep is the largess that the American Economy should invest in the permanent underclass without encouraging even more to enter therein?

We seem to have too many people pointing at others and saying THEY GET SOME.  We have too many people saying if we can put a man on the moon or spend money on wars we can do this.  OK. I'm in, how much, what, how far?  Not infinity.

What if there is no hope at all for these lost souls. I am including a large population of mentally ill and mentally deficient people.  What of them?

We are a civilized nation...  shouldn't we offer hope to those without and manage the expectations of the others?

Did JESUS feed all the hopeless and helpless when He walked the earth.  Did the Disciples recorded in the New Testament?

If you can answer this.. you would do the world a big favor.

Listen up all you Young Whipper Snappers ~

You all know, I have been a retired for a long time. I've become very bored so decided to open a medical clinic. I put a sign up outside that said: "Old Dr. Geezer's Clinic. Get your treatment for $500, if not cured get back $1,000."
My neighbor, a 'young' doctor, was positive that this 'old geezer' didn't know beans about medicine, and thought it would be a great opportunity to get $1,000.
So he visited my clinic ... 'Old Dr. Geezer's Clinic'.
This is what transpired:
He told me, "Old Dr. Geezer, I have lost all taste in my mouth." can you please help me ??
I called to my nurse, "will you please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in his mouth."
Apparently he didn't, like it because he said, "Aaagh !! -- "This is Gasoline!"
I told the young doctor, "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That will be $500."
I guess he was annoyed because he came back after a couple of days, probably figuring he could recover his money.
He told me, "Dr. Geezer, I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything."
Again, I called to my nurse, "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the doctor's mouth."
He reacted by saying , "Oh no you don't -- that is Gasoline!
I responded, "Congratulations! You've got your memory back. That will be $500."
After now having lost $1000 he left angrily, but I was surprised because he returned for treatment after several more days.
This time he said, "My eyesight has become weak .... I can hardly see !!!!"
I felt a little guilty that I had taken too much money from this young doctor, so I said, "Well, I don't have any medicine for that, " Here's your $1000 back."
He glanced at it and said, "But this is only $500..."
"Congratulations! You got your vision back !!! That will be $500."
I've taken my sign down and closed the clinic, but remember the Moral of my story:
Just because you're "Young" doesn't mean that you can outsmart this Wise Old Geezer" !!!!

The Danger of Misinformation, Myths, Conspiracies and Outright Lies

Thursday Night in Northern IL we had a real serious tornado come thru the area.  Friday I visited as close as I could get to the damage.  It's really bad.  Two women died in the storm.

So, I decided to stop in a gathering place to see what the locals had to say about it.  I heard one fellow loudly proclaim that there were 17 people still missing, unaccounted for, but that it was all a cover up.

Why? he didn't say.

I listened for a short bit and left the building.

This used to be conversation at the bar, coffee shop, water cooler or gossip fests.  Now all that has changed. The Internet has now become the conduit of such things.  A lie travels round the world while truth has yet to get his pants on.  That was Churchill.  It's still true.

It's not a wise stupid, left right, black white, male female, rich poor, liberal conservative, Christian Muslim, Believer Unbeliever, educated ignorant issue.. IT is a gullibility issue connected with a desire to appear in the know.  If you believe you have inside information on something, or the straight story, or see the lies behind a story you can propagate this and cause all kinds of upset and fear in seconds with the click of a mouse. 

I see this on Facebook. I see it in news feeds.  I see it in chat rooms.  For every blatant lie and accusation there is an equal and opposite lie fabricated out of whole cloth.

It WOULD be innocent enough, except that it divides people.  People love sensational over truth.  Pontius Pilate asked Jesus "What is Truth?".  That question still rings 2 millenia later.

Here's the issue as I see it.  Christians should be truth carriers.  We should be able to dispel rumor, lie, conspiracy and misinformation in a world fraught with lies.  That's what Jesus said would happen, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." John 18:37

I don't hear much truth from many platforms today.  I hear speculation, opinion, conspiracy, theory, misinformation and yes LIES.    IF we cannot do better in our Churches and religious gatherings than deal in the devil's soup, the father of lies, then God cannot and will not allow that to long prosper.

I appeal, beg and hope that people will come to truth about what is happening all around us and stop using lies to divide.  That is happening and it's killing people and it's killing any hope for the world.. that Jesus came for, lived for and died for.

STOP THE DECEPTION

A German pastor and theologian was executed seventy years ago today for opposing Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.

Hitler personally ordered that Dietrich Bonhoeffer be hung in the nude with thin wire at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp on April 9, 1945, just days before the end of World War II.
“I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer...kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God,” according to Eberhard Bethe, who would later become Bonhoeffer's biographer.

Bethe cited the camp doctor's written testimony, who is said to have witnessed Bonhoeffer's execution.

“I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God,” Bethe wrote of the camp doctor who saw the execution.

But other eyewitnesses dispute the camp doctor’s account. They asserted that Hermann Fischer-Hüllstrung may have wished to minimize the suffering of Bonhoeffer and the sufferings of six other condemned men who were hung seventy years ago today to reduce his own culpability in their executions, according to Thomas O.H. Kaiser's 2014 book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

It is believed that Bonhoeffer suffered longer than a few seconds. To prolong the tortuous agony of death, Nazi executioners were known to have revived political prisoners who almost die, only to asphyxiate them yet again. The execution could had lasted as long as six hours, according to a former Flossenbürg Concentration Camp prisoner.

“The physical details of Bonhoeffer's death may have been much more difficult than we earlier had imagined,” wrote Craig J. Slane's 2004 Bonhoeffer as Martyr: Social Responsibility and Modern Christian Commitment book.

Bonhoeffer’s execution occurred just two weeks before American soldiers liberated Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, three weeks before the Soviets captured Berlin, and a month before Nazi Germany surrendered to the allies, according to Robert W. Hacker's unpublished manuscript.
It is interesting to note that Bonhoeffer was influenced by the black church. He went to the United States in 1930 as a postgraduate student and teaching fellow at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary. During this time Bonhoeffer attended Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church and taught Sunday School there. It is also interesting to note that the German Bonhoeffer fell in love with African-American spirituals, born from the turmoils, sorrows, challenges and inspirations of a minority people enslaved and oppressed by the majority.

After returning to Germany it was he would be oppressed by the majority. For ten years prior to his execution, Bonhoeffer spoke, wrote, taught, preached and courageously fought -- along with others in the German resistance movement -- Nazism, Hitlerism, totalitarianism and anti-Semitism. He criticized Germany's church, her religious leaders, as well as Christians who worshipped the Führer, rather than worship Jesus Christ the LORD.

The Bonhoeffer lesson learned is this: There's a danger when Christians hero worship political figures. So many German Christians in the 1930s were seduced by Hitler. It was Hitler who claimed to be a Christian. Bonhoeffer criticized them, German clergy and parishioners.

So many American Christians were -- and still are -- seduced by American political leaders, such as President Barack Obama. He says he's also a Christian, yet he is a proponent of late-term abortions, has increased the funding of abortion, believes in the equality of gays as a protected class and is a proponent of same-sex marriages. Christians are so willing to believe what leaders say rather than watch what they do.

Biblical purists – and I’m one of them -- would challenge Bonhoeffer for his ecumenical beliefs that go against scripture, and question his stance on social justice as it relates to forcibly taking from the have’s and giving to the have not’s. Yet Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an iconic Christian martyr. I afford him the respect on this – the seventieth anniversary of his brutal execution.

Let us remember the martyrs who died before Bonhoeffer and remember those who are being martyred for their faith now, from the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded in February to the 147 Christian students gunned down in Kenya last week.

Let us also pray for the millions of others who are persecuted for their faith, such as Asia Bibi, sentenced to death in Pakistan and Saeed Abedini, sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran.

Notice Anything?

• 
  
• The top 10 states ranking in economic outlook for 2015 were as follows:
  • 1. Utah - Republican Governor Gary Herbert
  • 2. North Dakota - Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple
  • 3. Indiana - Republican Governor Mike Pence
  • 4. North Carolina - Republican Governor Pat McCrory
  • 5. Arizona - Republican Governor Doug Ducey
  • 6. Idaho - Republican Governor Butch Otter
  • 7. Georgia - Republican Governor Nathan Deal
  • 8. Wyoming - Republican Governor Matt Mead
  • 9. South Dakota - Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard
  • 10. Nevada - Republican Governor Brian Sandoval

The bottom 10 states ranking in economic outlook for 2015 were as follows:  

•  
  •  
    • 40. Illinois - Republican Governor Bruce Rauner
    • 41. Pennsylvania - Democrat Governor Tom Wolf
    • 42. Maine - Republican Governor
    • 43. Montana - Democrat Governor Steve Bullock
    • 44. California - Democrat Governor Jerry Brown
    • 45. Oregon - Democrat Governor Kate Brown
    • 46. New Jersey - Republican Governor Chris Christie
    • 47. Connecticut - Democrat Governor Dannel Malloy
    • 48. Minnesota - Democrat Governor Mark Dayton
    • 49. Vermont - Democrat Governor Peter Shumlin
    • 50. New York - Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo

The Inconvenient Truth About The California Drought

The Inconvenient Truth About The California Drought

Notice what’s missing in Gov. Brown’s
solution? What’s missing is the most common and well-proven way to store
winter rainwater (much of which is not required to maintain fish and
wildlife, and just runs into the sea) for mankind: construction of new dams!


But what some people don’t realize is that Gov. Brown is in a real
jam; how can he possibly talk about the best single solution (more dams)
for creating more available water (and jobs, by the way) when he is
currently supporting the removal of several perfectly good dams in Siskiyou County? And adding insult to injury, California taxpayers will foot the bill for this insane dam removal project, costing approximately one billion ($1,000,000,000.00) dollars, which could be used to build more water storage dams instead.


These particular dams hold approximately 135,000 acre-feet of fresh
water; that’s nearly 44 billion gallons of fresh water that may
disappear at a time when California desperately needs more water, not
less! These dams also produce about 150 megawatts of clean-green
electrical power for Californians. What kind of lunacy does this
potential dam removal action represent? The simple answer is greed!


California needs more dams (and the water they can provide), not fewer.
Bad management of the People’s resources is at the root of these and
many other problems we all face and, according to
socialist-environmentalists, must endure. And for Californians who are
being shorted on their water by a short-sighted politician, I think it’s
a good bet that the bigwigs will have all the water they want for their
spas, pools, and lawns–regardless of rationing. Think about the 44
billion gallons of fresh water these people want to carelessly drain
into the sea, and then email or phone Gov. Brown
and give him a piece of your mind! And if you live outside California,
this same paradigm is (or soon will be) affecting you as well; so make
it a point to become proactive while you can!

Same Deal

Down the Drain

George W Bush during his Presidency DOUBLED the National Debt from 3 Trillion Dollars to 6 Trillion by the end of his 8 years in office. That was horrid. It was unprecedented. He wasted it on wars and spending that was ill advised.

For that reason Barack Obama was elected on the platform of Hope and Change. It was a change check that the new President wrote with his mouth that his butt could never cash. But he had more than a pen and a phone, he had the national credit card. So while by slight of hand he appeared to be cutting spending, he TRIPLED the national debt in 6 years from 6 trillion when he took over to now OVER 18 trillion. And EVERY DAY he swipes that card thru the machine for another 2.3 BILLION dollars of new debt. By the time he leaves office we will be well over 20 TRILLION.. To put that into some framework the TOTAL number of Dollars we are able to generate in all of everything in the whole of the USA is about 16 TRILLION. So if you were somehow able to suck all of the money out of the economy we still would be broke.

If now you are saying this can't go on. YOU ARE RIGHT. It won't. One of the "befits" of getting older is you can remember patterns of the past. I well remember the Jimmy Carter days and then resultant Ronald Reagan. An inversion of the Bush Obama succession. Carter left the nation in crisis and Reagan fixed it.. BRUTALLY. Bankruptcies were rampant. Asset values collapsed as the money had to be sucked back out of the economy. Job loss. All kinds of things. The result is that after his 8 years the economy did well. Bush 1 and Clinton road the wave of the Peace Dividend.
This debt must and will be unraveled, one way or the other. Greece and Argentina are examples of how far things can fall. And the USA is much larger. This national financial suicide will be resolved but let me warn you how painful it will be.

The very rich will be fine. They can always move money to safer havens. They have experts helping them skate around any issues. They can afford to move and dodge. There is no stopping them. The very wealthy will notice but it won't matter much. A blip on the radar screen.
The middle class, those souls who pay taxes, work, produce, do what needs to be done, the survivors in our nation will suffer. It will be hard. Bankruptcy. Difficulty. Even homelessness. But they have come back before. They are independent. They will eventually find a way to stabilize. It will be less than before, but they will survive.

The real losers in the coming reconciliation are the dependent poor. The independent poor will survive. The cruelest thing these last 6 years has done is create a fresh underclass of dependent poverty stricken people. They will be cast aside as the money for guns or butter is divided up. They will become dust in the wind. Unnoticed, uncared for, unable to make it. Book of Eli poor. There will be not hope for them.

In a sad way it's karma for an electorate that enthusiastically supported Obama's run for President. Many of those who were enthused will be cast aside. It will be painful and brutal. The amputation of a diseased limb is painful to save the body.. but it will be amputated.

And there's nothing you or I can do. No matter who is elected in 2016 and beyond.. the grand reckoning is coming, the reset will happen. We are swirling down a drain and can't stop ourselves


Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison

To experience an abortion, here is an educational article for gay men to grasp the seriousness of what an abortion REALLY involves, the murder of a baby. dcgazette.com

Where is the cake those Christian bakers are supposed to make, where are the flowers the Christian florist was supposed to arrange? Shouldn't we celebrate such and event? SMH

Abortion Clinic Now Offers Fake Abortions to Gay Men (WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES) ⋆ Dc Gazette

Gardening for Dummies: Companion Planting {Free Printable} - onecreativemommy.com

Gardening for Dummies: Companion Planting {Free Printable} - onecreativemommy.com








SPRING is here (in my neck of the woods), and it’s time to get the
garden ready!  I am on year four of my desert garden adventure, and
things just keep getting better!  Now that I have learned (through trial
and error) what grows well in the desert, I’m ready to focus on what
plants help each other in the garden.  Want to learn, too?  I thought
you might!

Instead of just randomly placing my plants
in the garden (which I have done in the past), I decided to find out
which plants should and should not go together.  I found a fantastic
resource at WestCoastSeeds.com.  I’ve linked you to a document about companion planting.

I had a really hard time keeping track of
the twenty-four different plants I want to include in my garden.  To
keep it all straight, I created this companion planting chart and
planned my square foot garden boxes based the chart.  I hope it helps
you decide what to plant as well.

Here's the Truth about Refusing to Serve Gay Marriage

If I owned a Gas Station
A Car Wash
A taco shop
A Super 8 motel
A movie theater
A shoe store
A clothing store
A hardware store

Or any such thing where undifferentiated goods and services were provided, I will not and should not ever see your sexual preference as a barrier to doing business.

In the business I am in, nursery, there are a lot of people who I interact with, selling and buying, without consideration about IF or That they are homosexual. Some of those who actually LIKE are in gay "Marriages".  Women and Men.  I got a birth announcement from a lesbian couple recently.  I'm friends.  I used to have a roommate in college who was gay.  Friends from School who were gay. I am not only not against LGBT people, I care about them.  Some have had a really rough go.  It can be a brutal lifestyle,  I care about them.

So if someone comes to me, even one of my friends, and asks me to do a Michelangelo on their Sistine chapel, or to create a pieta for them celebrating their marriage I will hope they understand why I refuse.

If I were to create a floral arrangement, write a tome, host their wedding in my home, invite them to spend their first night together as a gay couple in my guestroom, Make a special something for them that could be construed as an endorsement or celebration of their union, even to making a cake (or pizza) that is asking me to put however abstract my indicia on the event.

I don't hate Gay people at all.  I accept that they are.. that they have a right to breath air, that they have the right in the USA to do whatever they want.

I just don't want to be asked however tacitly to put a stamp of approval on a life that is in rebellion to the Word of God as I understand it.  Selling you a pair of Rockport shoes from my shoe store for your wedding is not the issue.  Asking me to MAKE a pair of special shoes so designed to glorify your wedding to someone of the same sex IS the issue.

I don't expect this puts this to bed.. but it needs to be said.

IF I have to instruct you about the damage done to the institution of marriage in America by the acceptance of Same Sex marriage, you are so blinded by your "open mindedness" that there is no hope for you.  Compromise has seared your conscience.

For that reason, I am not going to provide you any service that requires my creativity.  If Michelangelo painted the Sistine out of his love for God, I can NOT make you a wedding cake out of my love for HIM.   

I don't want to be forced into celebrating something I don't accept.  That's what you are asking.  In Red China.. the clapping celebrating Chariman Mao was enforced at the point of a gun.  You celebrated or you were prosecuted. 

This is that.. 

I saw this tonight and it touched me

Curing California's Drought

You can't cut expenses to prosperity, you have to generate more than you spend to prosper. California is in a drought. It now has water restrictions. These policies are led by people without sense of purpose.  They think you get more water by restrictions. NO you must produce more.

There are 8 things California could do today that would resolve the water shortages.

1. Never allow one drop of any water of any kind other than sea water to go into the sea.  This includes waste water, run off, storm water, sewage water. All water goes back into inland lagoons for processing.  If you take a shower you may be making coffee with it next week. If you take a leak, it will end up coming from your faucet. Not one drop ever reaches the ocean anywhere. ALL water, storm and otherwise remains on the land.  

2. Agriculture gets water, but pays a price for it.  Make water an economic cost that will maximize the proper use of it. Sprinkler irrigation as is practiced must be replaced by drip and low flow systems.

3. All species preservation efforts that deal with water must stop.  Snail Darter or Drinking water..  People or Plants.  Bugs or Babies.  Those are the real choices.

4. Reduce the Population.  One way is make water and economic burden.  A big one.  If you must live in California then you must pay for water.  Many people will leave.

5. Getting water to stay on the land will ultimately recharge the water table.. it's slow but it's critical.  EVEN lagoons holding waste water will slowly rebuild the aquifer.


6. Divert ALL the watershed in the whole state into rivers that never reach the sea.  There is much more fresh water in the north that is being shed into the ocean when it rains, wasted..   There is a great deal of study already done in this.. stop feeding water of any kind into the ocean, it won't dry up.  There should be no brackish water at all. 

7. Why are we trying to keep people hydrated in a desert?  That includes lawns and golf courses.  There is such a thing as sand greens.  Las Vegas is going to have a problem at some point. Water is too precious to waste.  Use, Process and Reuse.  Don't waste a drop. 

8. Drill very very deep artesian wells. There is water there but it is a thousands of feet in the ground.  Use those for City Uses.  I grew up drinking fetid artesian water.  Bathed in it.  There are now RO systems for individuals to drink and cook with.  The rest won't kill you.  Geologically there is a lot of water well below the 300 foot water table. 

9. Begin to produce drinking and irrigation water by using a passive desalinization system along the lines of this.  It's simple but it will work.   

Now what?  Is there courage enough to solve the problem or is this a case of political pressure over progress.

Or let California turn back into an arid wasteland.

Hot Air

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below.

She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be a Republican.”

“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “Everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Democrat.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “You don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem.”

SHOEBAT EXCLUSIVE By Theodore Shoebat Say that “Bestiality Is Wrong” or “Polygamy Is Wrong” and it’s not considered hate speech, but if you have the... shoebat.com

This is not about gay rights. It is all about suppression of speech- war on Christianity in the name of equal rights, except it isn't about equal rights add you can see in these videos.
Everyone of these gay bakeries should be sued as well and the money won, donated to those who lost their businesses to the gay mafia.

Christian Man Asks Thirteen Gay Bakeries To Bake Him Pro-Traditional Marriage Cake, And Is...

OH YES YES WE CAN -- WITH A FLAT TAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(THE HILL) — The IRS commissioner on Tuesday brushed aside GOP proposals to abolish his agency, insisting the U.S. would have to have a tax collector one way or another. “You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel...

www.redflagnews.com

IRS chief to GOP: You can't abolish us

Arriving Each Month in 2015, by Ryan... Report: More Than 2,000 Illegal Immigrant Children Are Arriving Each Month in 2015 - nationalreview.com

 Mostly teenaged male illegal aliens in new, 2015 surge across our Border.
I'm sure they will contribute to our society..... Right?
Spell it, G-A-N-GS.

http://www.nationalreview.com/…/report-more-2000-illegal-im…

Report: More Than 2,000 Illegal Immigrant Children Are

Who'll Stop the REIGN

Arrogant spoiled brat shakes his fist at more allies of America, who ALL think he is making huge mistake with Iran.

So.....Our allies disagree. Most of the Middle East disagree. Most Americans disagree.
So who does stand with Obama? Well, all those that hate America....and the rest who have absolutely no idea how dangerous of a deal this is.

I remember a boy who threw a fake grenade into a gay bar once

Russian Police Forces Raid Homosexual Bar, To Clean Up Deviancy In Society And Advance Christianity - Walid Shoebat

 

About a recent event

I needed this

"Attitude creates reality. How you view a situation can have enormous impact on how you live. Some people see setbacks as absolute devastation, whereas others view them as opportunities. At the end of the day, the choice is really up to you." — Edward T. Creagan, M.D

Obama fundamentally changing the military

B R E A K I N G — Top Generals Reveal Obama’s Secret High Level Military Purge…

 

Killing Jesus Killed Me

I watched Killing Jesus.. man what a bunch of crap. 

Nothing was scriptural or accurate about the whole mess.

No wonder we have so many deluded in our culture about all things christian.

Do I Love You Enough to Risk Truth?

The question of Love is always hard.  Do I love you enough to stop you from running out into the street?  Do I love you enough to keep you from jumping off a tall building?  Do I love you enough to see to it you take your medication?

How much do I love you?

Sometimes Love means I have to say something.  I have to do something that is painful.  Tell the truth. 

It's a risk.  You may not accept it.  You may reject me.. but if I love you enough.. I MUST take that risk.  If it hurts the hurt will heal..   The damage you will do to yourself without my taking action is going to destroy you.  I'll take the risk.

This was a closed circuit message, but if it helps a reader.. so it is.

I can

I understand that a person can get 2.3 Melons per plant.. a real moneymaker

Growing melons (cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew) in Minnesota home gardens

Karl Foord, Extension Educator and Jill MacKenzie, Former Extension Specialist, Horticulture
Reviewed 2009 by Carl Rosen and Vincent Fritz

Melons are members of the cucurbit family, which includes pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, summer squash and winter squash. Being closely related, melons have similar growth requirements, however they will not cross-pollinate with cucumbers, squash or pumpkins.

Melon quality is a function of the sugar content of the fruit. High sugar content is achieved by avoiding all stress during the growing season. Stress comes from foliar diseases, insect pests, weeds, poor nutrition, and excesses or lack of water.

Read the whole very inspiring educational article

This is most certainly true

The farming lobby has wrecked efforts to defend our soil | Environment | The Guardian

The farming lobby has wrecked efforts to defend our soil | Environment | The Guardian



You would expect farmers to try to protect their soils, which are the
foundations of their livelihood, and many do. There are some excellent
farmers in Britain, careful, well-informed and always thinking of the
future.




But across large areas of land, short-termism now triumphs over
common sense. Farmers are often in debt to the banks, and seek to clear
that debt as quickly as they can. Many are growing crops that are simply
incompatible with protecting the soil. Some don't seem to know very
much about soil erosion and why it happens. Others – especially contract
farmers working on other people's land – don't seem to care.

 

Sensible land use is giving way to smash-and grab-exploitation.



Read the whole thing

We’re treating soil like dirt. It’s a fatal mistake, because all human life depends on it | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

We’re treating soil like dirt. It’s a fatal mistake, because all human life depends on it | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian



Imagine a wonderful world, a planet on which there was no threat of
climate breakdown, no loss of freshwater, no antibiotic resistance, no
obesity crisis, no terrorism, no war. Surely, then, we would be out of
major danger? Sorry. Even if everything else were miraculously fixed,
we’re finished if we don’t address an issue considered so marginal and
irrelevant that you can go for months without seeing it in a newspaper.




It’s literally and – it seems – metaphorically, beneath us. To judge
by its absence from the media, most journalists consider it unworthy of
consideration. But all human life depends on it. We knew this long ago,
but somehow it has been forgotten. As a Sanskrit text written
in about 1500BC noted: “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends.
Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel and our shelter and
surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die,
taking humanity with it.”


The issue hasn’t changed, but we have. Landowners around the world
are now engaged in an orgy of soil destruction so intense that,
according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world on
average has just 60 more years of growing crops.
Even in Britain, which is spared the tropical downpours that so quickly
strip exposed soil from the land, Farmers Weekly reports, we have “only 100 harvests left”.

Landowners around the world are now engaged in an orgy of soil destruction

To keep up with global food demand, the UN estimates, 6m hectares (14.8m acres) of new farmland will be needed every year. Instead, 12m hectares a year are lost through soil degradation.
We wreck it, then move on, trashing rainforests and other precious
habitats as we go. Soil is an almost magical substance, a living system
that transforms the materials it encounters, making them available to
plants. That handful the Vedic master showed his disciples contains more micro-organisms than all the people who have ever lived on Earth. Yet we treat it like, well, dirt.



Read the whole thing

Who's up for a Road Trip

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3009708/Plans-proposed-ambitious-12-400-mile-road-Russia-link-Britain-U-S.html#ixzz3VOt1dFbY
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I am not allowed to have an opinion because I am WHITE (If that isn't out and out racism I don't know what is)

In the past couple of weeks I have been told outright that my opinion doesn't count on things regarding our cultural divide because I am white, can't understand how things "Really Are", or I am genetically inhibited from understanding because of my DNA (being white).

Do you have any idea how insulting that is. It is racist to the max.  You are telling ME that I cannot comprehend,  I cannot grasp, I cannot look into a situation and make certain conclusions simply because I am white?   I'm not a tree either yet I am considered in the trade as a big time expert on such..  
What if I applied the same measure to black people?  I would explain how to make a lot of money but since you've always been poor you can't possibly understand.  I might have tried to help you with your relationship problems but since your DNA can't seem to stay sexually pure (see Baby Mama's Epidemic for more) you can't possibly understand.

Do you see how outrageous it is to insist that no white man can possibly have a valid opinion because of the color of his skin.  If the is ever going to be a bridging of the great divide, you will have to hear and consider my opinions without getting all condescending.  When you play the race card you are saying, I don't have any valid arguments, so I'll just say "You can't possibly understand".  Nothing is going to change.  Worse is when I hear the statement from some, "We need to have a conversation about race".  What they are really saying is, "I will talk, you listen, and when I am done talking if you don't yet agree with me I will keep talking until you do".  That's not conversation, that's indoctrination.

When I point out ideas and opinions I have line up exactly with Conservative Black men and women, some of whom grew up after world war one in the forties and fifties on the streets of Chicago in poverty but who now are conservatives like Jason Riley or Shelby Steele.  The answer I get for that is, "well, there are black conservatives and black liberals.  Everyone is untitled to their opinion" UNLESS THEY ARE WHITE!!

So next time some race baiting liberal black man or woman tells me I am not entitled to an opining because I am white, I will understand they are racist bigots of the worst kind.   They believe all white people are alike.. and that's the fatal flaw.. of those who are in fact espousers of the same narrow thinking of the KKK.

SHAME!!