I am not talking about hockey. One thing that is new and different about living among the northern Rockies is the ever present danger of avalanche. That hit home huge during this new year when one of our eighth grader's classmates lost his father in an avalanche down near Big Sky (more on that to come below).
Avalanche dangers are severe this winter with a mostly deeper than normal snow pack, a soft sugary base, extreme changes in temperature and high winds leading to multiple unstable snow and ice layers. Getting caught in an active avalanche is like being trapped in a spinning dryer. After the avalanche settles, even if a victim survives without serious injury, the troubles have only just begun. Victims are likely to be disoriented, buried alive and trapped with little or no available oxygen.
An avalanche can be triggered by snow or ice falling off a bow of a tree, by a hiker, skier or snow shoer, by a wild or domesticated animal, by a snow machine, or by some other movement or projectile, or by the sheer weight of accumulated ice and snow and a gust of wind.
"What should you do if you are caught in an avalanche?" The Los Angeles Times asked John Snook, avalanche forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Think Your Employer Plan is Safe? More Cancellations Coming
So says the Washington Post,
When millions of health-insurance plans were canceled last fall, the Obama administration tried to be reassuring, saying the terminations affected only the small minority of Americans who bought individual policies.
 |
| Employer mandates are coming. |
But according to industry analysts, insurers and state regulators, the disruption will be far greater, potentially affecting millions of people who receive insurance through small employers by the end of 2014.
While some cancellation notices already have gone out, insurers say the bulk of the letters will be sent in October, shortly before the next open-enrollment period begins.Meanwhile, the New York Times reports on the high level and reliability of coverage for those whose health care has already been cancelled and replaced -- not.
FORT WORTH — Paul D. Donahue and his wife, Angela, are among more than a million Americans who have signed up for health coverage through the federal insurance exchange. Mr. Donahue has a card in his wallet from his insurer to prove it. But when he tried to use it to get a flu shot and fill prescriptions this week, local pharmacies could not confirm his coverage, so he left without his medications.
Similar problems are occurring daily in doctors’ offices and drugstores around the country as consumers try to use insurance coverage that took effect on Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act.
In addition to the difficulties many face in proving they have coverage, patients are also having a hard time figuring out whether particular doctors are affiliated with their health insurance plan. Doctors themselves often do not know if they are in the network of providers for plans sold on the exchange.
CNN agrees,
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Jeanne Patterson really needs to see a doctor but had to cancel her appointment last week.
Why? Because her new Obamacare benefits were not in order, forcing her to spend hours and hours on hold with her insurer, Independence Blue Cross.
Many folks who signed up for coverage through the state and federal exchanges are running into roadblocks now that they are trying to use their new benefits.And though exchange officials and insurers have urged consumers to call their insurers if they encounter problems, many say they either wait endlessly on hold or get the runaround. Coverage for the first wave of Obamacare applicants took effect Jan. 1.
Obamacare is self immolating.
If you like your health care plan you can keep it? If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor? America, so happy you elected the callous, graceless, inept, deceptive, lying skunk in the Oval Office. Good luck to all!
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Lawyer of the Year
A big shout out to my sister Joanne Foster who was named Lawyer of the Year by the North American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) at their 2013 Legal Symposium, held in Las Vegas last December. Three and one-half decades ago Joanne responded to a post on the University of Washington Law School job board looking for a student who could serve as a lower court prosecutor for the Quinault Indian Nation on the Olympic Peninsula, pending the tribe's efforts to train and develop legal talent internally. Joanne responded, was hired and, to make a long story short, over the decades had a distinguished career representing Indian tribes throughout the Pacific Northwest.
 |
| Award presentation to Joanne Foster. |
LEGAL SYMPOSIUM 2013 WELL ATTENDED
With registration of almost 500, Legal Symposium 2013 in Las Vegas was successful. Training sessions on workplace conflict, mold remediation, effective communication and other topics recommended by NAIHC membership proved popular among attendees. The additional of Roundtables generated lively discussion on current topics.
The Lawyer of the Year Award was given to attorney Joanne Foster by Region 6 board member John Williamson for her years of work with tribes in the Northwest. Her dedication to housing issues in that area led to her nomination by members of Region 6, who wished to recognize her devotion to the community following her recent retirement.As an example of her work, Joanne co-led the following session during the 2007 NAIHC Legal Symposium.
A Model: Tribal Mortgage Leaseholds and Promissory Notes
Presenters: Joanne Foster, Esq. and Eugena Hobucket, Quinault Nation
The Quinault Nation presented their Model tribal leasehold mortgage documents for federal, tribal, state and private guaranteed, insured and direct residential loan programs which are in use in conjunction with a tribal leasehold mortgage ordinance, and approved for use with Section 184 mortgages by the ONAP Office of Loan Guarantee. They are also available for use as second mortgages to satisfy the requirement that NAHASDA recipients enter into binding commitments to
assure that dwelling units assisted with NAHASDA funding remain affordable for the useful life of the property. Sharing electronic documents will increase capacity and introduce “best practices” concepts for tribal housing authorities.
Congratulation Joanne!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Larry Speakes, RIP
Larry Speakes has died. He was appointed Deputy Press Secretary under President Ronald Reagan in January 1981. Subsequent to his service in the White House,
Mr. Speakes was employed by Merrill Lynch, Nothern Telecom and then the United States Postal Service.
Mr. Speakes was thrown into the limelight after John Hinckley's assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. On that dark, dreary day outside the service entrance to the Washington Hilton, Hinckley grievously wounded Reagan, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and DC Metropolitan police officer Thomas Delahanty, as well as shooting Speake's boss, White House Press Secretary James Brady, in the head. Brady suffered permanent, paralyzing injury that confines him to a wheelchair and permanently affected the portions of his brain controlling speech and emotion. From that point forward until he left for the private sector, Speakes handled White House daily press briefings and was Acting Press Secretary for the administration. Brady retained his title, and his position on the payroll, through the remainder of the Reagan administration.
I met Mr. Speakes towards the end of his career. I jogged during lunch hour. He worked out. We became fitness center locker room acquaintances and engaged in the normal banter, even when, as I learned later from press reports, he had descended into the fog of Alzheimer's disease. Larry always had a smile and a kind word for everyone who crossed his path. He will be missed. Rest in peace Larry.
 |
| Larry Speakes at the White House, The Washington Post |
Mr. Speakes was thrown into the limelight after John Hinckley's assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. On that dark, dreary day outside the service entrance to the Washington Hilton, Hinckley grievously wounded Reagan, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and DC Metropolitan police officer Thomas Delahanty, as well as shooting Speake's boss, White House Press Secretary James Brady, in the head. Brady suffered permanent, paralyzing injury that confines him to a wheelchair and permanently affected the portions of his brain controlling speech and emotion. From that point forward until he left for the private sector, Speakes handled White House daily press briefings and was Acting Press Secretary for the administration. Brady retained his title, and his position on the payroll, through the remainder of the Reagan administration.
I met Mr. Speakes towards the end of his career. I jogged during lunch hour. He worked out. We became fitness center locker room acquaintances and engaged in the normal banter, even when, as I learned later from press reports, he had descended into the fog of Alzheimer's disease. Larry always had a smile and a kind word for everyone who crossed his path. He will be missed. Rest in peace Larry.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Save Money, Live Better
Citing an analysis from the Journal of American Medical Association, the Examiner“concluded an unsubsidized enrollee could pay premiums anywhere from five to nine times what they would pay for a Walmart employee plan” Bream told Carlson.
Additionally, the Walmart employee plan offers better access to quality centers for employees to seek treatment at. Betsy McCaughey, author of Beating Obamacare, commented “People who have someone in their family who has a serious illness should stay away from those Obamacare exchange plans if they can, because those exchange plans don’t give you access to the centers of excellence like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, academic medical centers around the country where if you’re seriously ill, it may be the only place that can help you.” Bream confirmed “Walmart plans do provide access to those clinics.”Can you beat that? Good luck to all.
Pathetic Job Numbers
The print, borrow and spend economy is not real; it's not working sheeple. We are living a lie and running an abject failure.
Today's job numbers were south of pathetic. New payroll jobs numbered 74,000 (less than half the pace needed to keep up with population growth) and the unemployment rate "dropped" to 6.7 percent, not driven by employment but by people giving up on a life of work. We have not had this low of a labor participation rate since the halcyon days of Jimmy Carter.
People are discouraged from looking for work and cannot find decent jobs when they do. And Dear President announced this will be the year of tackling income inequality, while at the same time doing everything in his power to control, regulate and undercut the real economy and to subsidize sloth.
We uncorked the lid on Obama's pious absurdity last April.
You have gotten what you voted for. Good luck to us all.
Today's job numbers were south of pathetic. New payroll jobs numbered 74,000 (less than half the pace needed to keep up with population growth) and the unemployment rate "dropped" to 6.7 percent, not driven by employment but by people giving up on a life of work. We have not had this low of a labor participation rate since the halcyon days of Jimmy Carter.
People are discouraged from looking for work and cannot find decent jobs when they do. And Dear President announced this will be the year of tackling income inequality, while at the same time doing everything in his power to control, regulate and undercut the real economy and to subsidize sloth.
 |
| President Barack Obama has appointed Janet Yellen (center) to continue four more years the money printing regime that robs the real economy of vitality and drives enormous increases in income and wealth inequality. |
We uncorked the lid on Obama's pious absurdity last April.
There is a fool born every minute. Obama thanks God for that.
It is shocking how foolish the American people are. They support Barack Obama and his policies because he supposedly promotes middle class values and has the interests of the 99 percent at heart. The reality is totally different. I am befuddled, perplexed, dumbfounded and dismayed by the ignorance and the gullibility of the average American.I said,
The Pew Research Center released a new study this week which reveals the obvious – that Obama’s print (money), borrow (money) and spend (money) policy triad favors people with money -- the uppercrust. Obama is a money lever guy, not an economic leader. The money changer in chief doesn't understand or promote a value driven economy. Real exchanges of actual goods and genuine services drive value and build a strong, broad based and resilient economy and sustainable economic growth. The demand and production led economy that we should be building has attributes that reach into every household.
In the world of Obama wealth disparity has not merely skyrocketed among economic groups, disparities have also soared to record highs levels between whites and blacks, and whites and Hispanics. And those poor old seniors, the folks on whose behalf that AARP incessantly whines, they are gaining dramatically compared to the young people who actually work, and incomprehensibly vote for and support Obama.The right overarching strategy is the real economy, yes, and the Federal Reserve Board and banking system paper-based (in the modern era, digital currency) economy, no. Strategy execution requires a federal bureaucracy that thousands of times a day in dozens of different ways makes every small step that works in the right direction, when Obama's regulatory administrative behemoth does exactly the opposite.
You have gotten what you voted for. Good luck to us all.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
2013 Top Posts
We had a fantastic first year.
While our blog posts on the political machinations of the day came and went, the stories that garnered lasting and substantial interest are -- well -- stories. 2013 was our first year (save for a handful of posts in 2012) of blogging. We blog to crystallize our thinking and reduce our views to writing, and hopefully, every now and again, entertain and inform. You, our readers, show what you are most interested in and informed by what you click through and read.
So here are your top 25 posts from 2013. Among the posts are advice, satire, nostalgia and personal and family history, as well as occasional serious political or financial and economic analysis and commentary. Check out what you missed or review an old favorite -- whatever your pleasure -- and enjoy.
1. The Golf Channel: Spouse's Guide To Sanity (Special Guest Post)
Teresa wanted to give me a day off from blogging on Father's Day. Boy, did she! She contrived to write the all-time most popular post on Along the Gradient. Her post is jam packed with advice for the links-free crowd on how to watch golf, understand golf, ignore golf and tolerate someone who is addicted to golf. Along the way she reviews the styles, the wines, the nicknames and the personalities on the PGA tour. When she wrote the post Henrik Stenson was still best known for something quite different from lapping the field on the PGA and European tours. Click to find out what.
2. Jon Tester Supports Truck Control
Single vehicle rollover accidents kill. Ford F-150 pickup trucks are a much more dangerous instrumentality in Montana than semi-automatic weapons, which gave rise to this satire, poking fun at the junior Senator from Montana.
3. Growing Up in Morton Grove
This post was inspired by the "We Grovers from Morton Grove" group on Facebook where us baby boomers wax nostalgic about youthful experiences and exploits growing up in the northern Chicago suburb. The schools, the parks, the river, the woods, my first job, influential teachers, and the old haunts are the grist of this personal look back.
4. On the Road to Bathgate Act 1: "Fargo" the Movie
When the research starts, a blog post can take surprising turns. My father was born and raised in Bathgate, North Dakota. His father and grandfather homesteaded claims in the township and founded the town. I was writing the first post of the popular Road to Bathgate series as a family history post but it turned into a pop culture paean when I learned that snow abundance led to the iconic Paul Bunyan statue scene from "Fargo" being shot in Bathgate. In the words of the local barkeep, "You should have seen it right after they put it up," "It was foggy, and people couldn't see it until they got right up to it. Then, it says, 'Brainerd,' and they thought, 'What the hell?" Now we know when "Fargo" is playing on any of the movie channels because the post accumulates hits. And it will no doubt experience renewed popularity when "Fargo" the television series, premieres on FX thjs spring.
5. Student Loan Accountability: Put College Skin into the Game
Student loan debt load has grown exponentially. Over a trillion dollars of student loan debt is outstanding. Many of the debtors are unemployed, or under employed in jobs that don't require a college degree. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy or by returning to live in the parents' basement. The flood of student loans has driven a tuition bubble not unlike the real estate bubble whose deflation led to the 2008 financial meltdown. Higher tuition begets greater debt which begets increased tuition. It's a circular trap and a situation that calls out for serious reform, while financial and economic incompetent progressives like Elizabeth Warren can only seem to come up with solutions that involve lending more money to more students.
6. On the Road to Bathgate Act 3: I Am a Cubs Fan
The Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees, a World Series and an empty freight car brought my father from North Dakota to Chicago, Illinois in 1931. Dad said Babe Ruth didn't point -- the Bambino was indicating the count. Dad passed along his Cub fan bug, which bit me the biggest in 1969. "Hey, hey, holy mackeral. No doubt about it. The Cub are on their way. Hey. Hey." "They got the hustle, they got the muscle." "The Chicago Cubs are on their way." Least ways so we thought until September when the Miracle Mets intervened to trample the best Cub team ever assembled.
7. Yes Virginia, There Is a Caddie Scholarship
In the movie Caddyshack Noonan may or may not have deserved it but there actually is a caddie scholarship. Bill Murray and his brothers caddied at a country club up the road from Glen View Club where I caddied and was fortunate enough to win the actual caddie scholarship. Caddyshack is real. When the kids learn that dad actually got a caddie scholarship they'll believe most anything else he tells them too. We try not to take undue advantage.
8. On the Road to Bathgate Act 5: Founding and Early Years
The founding of Bathgate, its early years and the lead role of the Foster family are described in this historical review. Like many small farming town on the Great Plains, Bathgate peaked in the early 1900's and was decimated in the Great Depression. It is still there. While a shadow of its former self, the town stands broad and tall in our family heritage.
9. The Caddies Thank You Dr. King!
There is nothing quite like a group of 100 caddies breaking the solitude of an early Sunday morning with shouts of "Strike!" and marching onto the driving range singing choruses of "We Shall Overcome". We struck, we were fired, we negotiated and we were rehired -- all in a period of three and one-half hours.
10. On the Road to Bathgate Act 4: Introducing the Foster Family Offspring
In our fourth piece on Bathgate, North Dakota we finally got around to systematically identifying my father's family of 13. He was the youngest of 11 children. Click through to the post -- he's the little guy on the right.
11. Politidumb of the Week
In this occasional feature I highlight the dumbest things said by politicians and public figures the preceding week. This post awarded the week to U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, who claimed that global warming is a scourge against women. If so, why were so many female teeth chattering this last week when the polar vortex dropped down from northerly climes?
12. Mainstream Media -- Handmaiden of Government Distortion and Deception
During the course of a year, there are hundreds of lead AP stories with deceptive and misleading spin. In this post I dissected just one, an AP page 1 lead that said not to worry about the $17 trillion U.S. government debt bomb because it is not held by foreign meanies; instead the largest chunk of debt is the government owing money to the government. Dudes, in any other context, that kind of accounting is called a Ponzi scheme. Sooner or later these schemes collapse upon themselves. There is everything to worry about.
13. Happy 45th Big Mac
My father's employer printed the first packaging for McDonald's Big Mac, which led to my consuming a double decker months before they were introduced to the general public. Welcome to a Forrest Gump moment.
14. Senator Jon Tester Invokes Constitutional Right to Mail Delivery
Sadly, this was not satire. Jon Tester actually did invoke a constitutional right to mail delivery to block needed reforms to put the Postal Service on sound financial footing. This type of progressive idiocy is bankrupting the Postal Service and our nation.
15. The Masters
When Jock Hutchison told me "Laddie, I used this mashie to win the British Open" I didn't believe him. Back in the day we didn't have the internet where I could have looked it up. If he had told me he was an honorary starter at The Masters, I probably would not have believed that as well, and would have been just as wrong.
16. Government Shutdown Activities: Colonial Williamsburg
We assisted tourists stranded in the DC area during the government shutdown by recommending interesting and informative historical sights they could visit that were privately owned and unaffected by the shutdown. Colonial Williamsburg is a fantastic site, a restored and recreated town that was once colonial Virginia's capital where notables like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Patrick Henry served. It is now operated with period actors, sponsored tours and historical talks, and special events. Williamsburg is a must see, shutdown or no shutdown.
17. My 2013 Predictions
Predicting is dangerous, writing down your predictions even more so and actually publishing them, well, that's positively insane. We are more willing to take the risk than most, if for no other reason, that our job with the Postal Service for many years carried an economic and business forecasting portfolio. We had more than a modicum of success. In this post, which should have been more properly titled "Predictions for Barack Obama Second Term Upon His Inauguration," we looked into the crystal ball on matters, political, economic and diplomatic. Look for a retrospective come January 2017.
18. Keystone XL Is Swell
Montana will have an on-ramp to the Keystone XL pipeline. Build the damn thing and maybe there won't be so many of Warren Buffett's trains blowing up and threatening house, home, limb and life. Okay. End of rant -- at least this one.
19. Global Cooling?
Just about everything that currently is attributed to global warming was attributed to global cooling back in the 1970's when I was being educated by scientists who were much humbler and less doctrinaire than today's crowd. The Al Goreacle panic is somewhere between overblown and nonexistent.
20. We the Feds Part II – Special Interest Rates for Federal Employees
Federal employees have access to an extremely attractive variable interest rate investment vehicle that Uncle Sam uniquely offers to Club Fed. This unfairness comes with a huge price tag on the order of $70 billion over the standard 10-year budget horizon, a burden that is being passed along to our children and grandchildren in this era of deficit spending. Wake up, little sheeple, wake up.
21. On the Road to Bathgate Act 6: Norval Baptie Champion Skater
There is a lot more to Bathgate than the Fosters. Norval Baptie hailed from and is buried in Bathgate, North Dakota. He was world record speed skater, a world record barrel jumper, and a professional figure skater and promoter who founded the modern ice show. Besides that, he didn't accomplish much. Read about it here.
22. The Washington Monument Game
In the year of the Sequester Barack Obama raised the Washington Monument Game to a high art. In this post we laid out the origin and strategy that Obama played out so vindictively all year long in an effort to secure unlimited budget and spending authority.
23. Mildly Painful, Painful and Very Painful -- Texas Cactus
This is Teresa's second guest post. In the Lone Star state, watch where you run, watch where you sit and watch where you hide because you never know where cactii may lurk.
24. Green Jobs?
One of our old friends back in Arlington, and a rare sane political and economic observer thereabouts, explains the Obama administration's phony accounting for green jobs.
25. During the Shutdown Go to Mount Vernon
George Washington's Mount Vernon is conveniently located down the Mount Vernon Parkway and the Potomac south of DC. It is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association which meant it was not affected by the government shutdown -- we thought. In a bizarre and lawless twist the National Park Police attempted to use easements that had been granted to the National Park Service as a basis for Barrycading Mount Vernon parking lots. The ladies told Obama's police to go stick it.
While our blog posts on the political machinations of the day came and went, the stories that garnered lasting and substantial interest are -- well -- stories. 2013 was our first year (save for a handful of posts in 2012) of blogging. We blog to crystallize our thinking and reduce our views to writing, and hopefully, every now and again, entertain and inform. You, our readers, show what you are most interested in and informed by what you click through and read.
So here are your top 25 posts from 2013. Among the posts are advice, satire, nostalgia and personal and family history, as well as occasional serious political or financial and economic analysis and commentary. Check out what you missed or review an old favorite -- whatever your pleasure -- and enjoy.
1. The Golf Channel: Spouse's Guide To Sanity (Special Guest Post)
Teresa wanted to give me a day off from blogging on Father's Day. Boy, did she! She contrived to write the all-time most popular post on Along the Gradient. Her post is jam packed with advice for the links-free crowd on how to watch golf, understand golf, ignore golf and tolerate someone who is addicted to golf. Along the way she reviews the styles, the wines, the nicknames and the personalities on the PGA tour. When she wrote the post Henrik Stenson was still best known for something quite different from lapping the field on the PGA and European tours. Click to find out what.
2. Jon Tester Supports Truck Control
Single vehicle rollover accidents kill. Ford F-150 pickup trucks are a much more dangerous instrumentality in Montana than semi-automatic weapons, which gave rise to this satire, poking fun at the junior Senator from Montana.
3. Growing Up in Morton Grove
This post was inspired by the "We Grovers from Morton Grove" group on Facebook where us baby boomers wax nostalgic about youthful experiences and exploits growing up in the northern Chicago suburb. The schools, the parks, the river, the woods, my first job, influential teachers, and the old haunts are the grist of this personal look back.
4. On the Road to Bathgate Act 1: "Fargo" the Movie
When the research starts, a blog post can take surprising turns. My father was born and raised in Bathgate, North Dakota. His father and grandfather homesteaded claims in the township and founded the town. I was writing the first post of the popular Road to Bathgate series as a family history post but it turned into a pop culture paean when I learned that snow abundance led to the iconic Paul Bunyan statue scene from "Fargo" being shot in Bathgate. In the words of the local barkeep, "You should have seen it right after they put it up," "It was foggy, and people couldn't see it until they got right up to it. Then, it says, 'Brainerd,' and they thought, 'What the hell?" Now we know when "Fargo" is playing on any of the movie channels because the post accumulates hits. And it will no doubt experience renewed popularity when "Fargo" the television series, premieres on FX thjs spring.
5. Student Loan Accountability: Put College Skin into the Game
Student loan debt load has grown exponentially. Over a trillion dollars of student loan debt is outstanding. Many of the debtors are unemployed, or under employed in jobs that don't require a college degree. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy or by returning to live in the parents' basement. The flood of student loans has driven a tuition bubble not unlike the real estate bubble whose deflation led to the 2008 financial meltdown. Higher tuition begets greater debt which begets increased tuition. It's a circular trap and a situation that calls out for serious reform, while financial and economic incompetent progressives like Elizabeth Warren can only seem to come up with solutions that involve lending more money to more students.
6. On the Road to Bathgate Act 3: I Am a Cubs Fan
The Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees, a World Series and an empty freight car brought my father from North Dakota to Chicago, Illinois in 1931. Dad said Babe Ruth didn't point -- the Bambino was indicating the count. Dad passed along his Cub fan bug, which bit me the biggest in 1969. "Hey, hey, holy mackeral. No doubt about it. The Cub are on their way. Hey. Hey." "They got the hustle, they got the muscle." "The Chicago Cubs are on their way." Least ways so we thought until September when the Miracle Mets intervened to trample the best Cub team ever assembled.
7. Yes Virginia, There Is a Caddie Scholarship
In the movie Caddyshack Noonan may or may not have deserved it but there actually is a caddie scholarship. Bill Murray and his brothers caddied at a country club up the road from Glen View Club where I caddied and was fortunate enough to win the actual caddie scholarship. Caddyshack is real. When the kids learn that dad actually got a caddie scholarship they'll believe most anything else he tells them too. We try not to take undue advantage.
8. On the Road to Bathgate Act 5: Founding and Early Years
The founding of Bathgate, its early years and the lead role of the Foster family are described in this historical review. Like many small farming town on the Great Plains, Bathgate peaked in the early 1900's and was decimated in the Great Depression. It is still there. While a shadow of its former self, the town stands broad and tall in our family heritage.
9. The Caddies Thank You Dr. King!
There is nothing quite like a group of 100 caddies breaking the solitude of an early Sunday morning with shouts of "Strike!" and marching onto the driving range singing choruses of "We Shall Overcome". We struck, we were fired, we negotiated and we were rehired -- all in a period of three and one-half hours.
10. On the Road to Bathgate Act 4: Introducing the Foster Family Offspring
In our fourth piece on Bathgate, North Dakota we finally got around to systematically identifying my father's family of 13. He was the youngest of 11 children. Click through to the post -- he's the little guy on the right.
11. Politidumb of the Week
In this occasional feature I highlight the dumbest things said by politicians and public figures the preceding week. This post awarded the week to U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, who claimed that global warming is a scourge against women. If so, why were so many female teeth chattering this last week when the polar vortex dropped down from northerly climes?
12. Mainstream Media -- Handmaiden of Government Distortion and Deception
During the course of a year, there are hundreds of lead AP stories with deceptive and misleading spin. In this post I dissected just one, an AP page 1 lead that said not to worry about the $17 trillion U.S. government debt bomb because it is not held by foreign meanies; instead the largest chunk of debt is the government owing money to the government. Dudes, in any other context, that kind of accounting is called a Ponzi scheme. Sooner or later these schemes collapse upon themselves. There is everything to worry about.
13. Happy 45th Big Mac
My father's employer printed the first packaging for McDonald's Big Mac, which led to my consuming a double decker months before they were introduced to the general public. Welcome to a Forrest Gump moment.
14. Senator Jon Tester Invokes Constitutional Right to Mail Delivery
Sadly, this was not satire. Jon Tester actually did invoke a constitutional right to mail delivery to block needed reforms to put the Postal Service on sound financial footing. This type of progressive idiocy is bankrupting the Postal Service and our nation.
15. The Masters
When Jock Hutchison told me "Laddie, I used this mashie to win the British Open" I didn't believe him. Back in the day we didn't have the internet where I could have looked it up. If he had told me he was an honorary starter at The Masters, I probably would not have believed that as well, and would have been just as wrong.
16. Government Shutdown Activities: Colonial Williamsburg
We assisted tourists stranded in the DC area during the government shutdown by recommending interesting and informative historical sights they could visit that were privately owned and unaffected by the shutdown. Colonial Williamsburg is a fantastic site, a restored and recreated town that was once colonial Virginia's capital where notables like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Patrick Henry served. It is now operated with period actors, sponsored tours and historical talks, and special events. Williamsburg is a must see, shutdown or no shutdown.
17. My 2013 Predictions
Predicting is dangerous, writing down your predictions even more so and actually publishing them, well, that's positively insane. We are more willing to take the risk than most, if for no other reason, that our job with the Postal Service for many years carried an economic and business forecasting portfolio. We had more than a modicum of success. In this post, which should have been more properly titled "Predictions for Barack Obama Second Term Upon His Inauguration," we looked into the crystal ball on matters, political, economic and diplomatic. Look for a retrospective come January 2017.
18. Keystone XL Is Swell
Montana will have an on-ramp to the Keystone XL pipeline. Build the damn thing and maybe there won't be so many of Warren Buffett's trains blowing up and threatening house, home, limb and life. Okay. End of rant -- at least this one.
19. Global Cooling?
Just about everything that currently is attributed to global warming was attributed to global cooling back in the 1970's when I was being educated by scientists who were much humbler and less doctrinaire than today's crowd. The Al Goreacle panic is somewhere between overblown and nonexistent.
20. We the Feds Part II – Special Interest Rates for Federal Employees
Federal employees have access to an extremely attractive variable interest rate investment vehicle that Uncle Sam uniquely offers to Club Fed. This unfairness comes with a huge price tag on the order of $70 billion over the standard 10-year budget horizon, a burden that is being passed along to our children and grandchildren in this era of deficit spending. Wake up, little sheeple, wake up.
21. On the Road to Bathgate Act 6: Norval Baptie Champion Skater
There is a lot more to Bathgate than the Fosters. Norval Baptie hailed from and is buried in Bathgate, North Dakota. He was world record speed skater, a world record barrel jumper, and a professional figure skater and promoter who founded the modern ice show. Besides that, he didn't accomplish much. Read about it here.
22. The Washington Monument Game
In the year of the Sequester Barack Obama raised the Washington Monument Game to a high art. In this post we laid out the origin and strategy that Obama played out so vindictively all year long in an effort to secure unlimited budget and spending authority.
23. Mildly Painful, Painful and Very Painful -- Texas Cactus
This is Teresa's second guest post. In the Lone Star state, watch where you run, watch where you sit and watch where you hide because you never know where cactii may lurk.
24. Green Jobs?
One of our old friends back in Arlington, and a rare sane political and economic observer thereabouts, explains the Obama administration's phony accounting for green jobs.
25. During the Shutdown Go to Mount Vernon
George Washington's Mount Vernon is conveniently located down the Mount Vernon Parkway and the Potomac south of DC. It is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association which meant it was not affected by the government shutdown -- we thought. In a bizarre and lawless twist the National Park Police attempted to use easements that had been granted to the National Park Service as a basis for Barrycading Mount Vernon parking lots. The ladies told Obama's police to go stick it.
Niagra Falls Frozen
Niagra Falls on the U.S. (left) side jammed up by ice.
Horseshoe falls on the Canadian side (right) remains free flowing. Those Canucks sure know a thing or two on how to handle cold weather.
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| January 9, close up photo. |
See the EarthCam live view here.
Where They Needed Goretex For The Vortex
We come from some pretty hearty stock. My father grew up in Bathgate, North Dakota, 5 miles south of the Candadian border with nary a hill nor a tree grove for miles to break the northerly winds. He spoke of going to school on a sled wrapped in blankets, pulled by an ox. He said the snow drifted up to the eaves, and sifted through the roof and walls as hard blizzards blew. They had to tunnel out the front door. He didn't exaggerate. That was well nigh a hundred years ago.
Now, earlier this week came the descending polar vortex to drive record low temperatures through the Great Plains, down into Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, as well as above into the Midwest and then into New England. People suffered cold they had not felt in decades; for many that meant the coldest outdoor temperatures of their lives. But wherever they might live, no matter how cold it has been, it could have been worse.
My cousin Margie still lives in the far north. She has resided in Littlefork, Minnesota, which is 21 miles south, southeast of International Falls, Minnesota, for almost all of her 82 years. Life doesn't stop when the temperature drops in International Falls. The big news up there this week is that Keith Aili of nearby Ray took third place in the second annual Gichigami Express Sled Dog Race. The International Falls Journal reports,
Littlefork had but two days when the temperature edged above zero. The lowest daily low was -42°F on January 2nd. Four out of seven days the mercury drop to 30 degrees below zero or less.
Let's compare to Little Rock, Arkansas.
Now, earlier this week came the descending polar vortex to drive record low temperatures through the Great Plains, down into Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, as well as above into the Midwest and then into New England. People suffered cold they had not felt in decades; for many that meant the coldest outdoor temperatures of their lives. But wherever they might live, no matter how cold it has been, it could have been worse.
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| Frozen turkey bowling, International Falls |
The vortex that has locked almost the entire United States under subfreezing temperatures created an air temperature of 31 below zero with a wind chill of 63 below as teams of mushers and sled dogs took off toward the finish line.
“It was really cold,” said musher Ryan Anderson of Ray, who placed fourth in the second annual race.
Keith Aili, also of Ray, took third place in the event while Amanda Vogel, another Ray musher, dropped out, or scratched, after the first day.
Aili and Anderson were among 10 teams that persevered through the bitter cold to reach the finish line in Grand Portage on Monday afternoon, when temps had warmed to 17 below zero with a wind chill around 40 below.
Keith Aili, of Ray, took third place.
Musher Buddy Streeper of Fort Nelson, British Columbia, won the race followed by John Stewart of Aberdeen, Scotland.Amanda Vogel explained why she dropped out. It seems snow was the problem.
Vogel said she struggled with the decision to scratch from the race after the first day, but knew the health of her dogs took top priority.
“Their feet were getting really beat up,” she said. “Given the timing and the goals I have for the season, it was the right thing to do... I’ve never pulled out of a race. It was really hard to do.”
With the soft trails, Vogel said the dogs’ booties were filling with snow causing “snowballs” to form on their feet. She said dogs can then overcompensate for the built-up snow, which can lead to additional injuries. With a small kennel, the musher said she has little room for injured teammates.
“I have 13 dogs in training. One is at home recovering,” she said in a post on Facebook about her decision to scratch. “ I have no room for error. I am concerned that continuing to train with trail and weather conditions would be too big of a risk to the dogs in terms of recovery time.”
Vogel said her team is tough and would have finished the race for her, but losing their trust was also a concern.
“I didn’t want to ruin their trust,” she said. “That race was for fun and for training – the dogs weren’t having much fun.”I looked up temperatures for the first week of 2014 in Littlefork, so we could review and digest and feel all warm and cozy by comparison.
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Source: The Weather Channel, www.weather.com.
Let's compare to Little Rock, Arkansas.
Monthly Planner for
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In Arkansas, temperatures were right around normal on the 1st and 2nd. By the 6th and the 7th the polar vortex brought temps 15 to 25 degrees below normal, but still 40 to 50 degrees warmer than Littlefork, Minnesota.
And so it goes. Good luck to all.
And so it goes. Good luck to all.
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