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.

Frozen turkey bowling, International Falls

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,

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.

 Keith Aili, of Ray, took third place.

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.

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.

Monthly Planner for Littlefork, MN [ English | Metric ]

Previous Month January Next Month Sun Mon Tue Wed   1 OBSERVED Hi  -11°F Lo  -38°F Precip (in) 0in. Thu   2 OBSERVED Hi  -4°F Lo  -42°F Precip (in) 0in. Fri   3 OBSERVED Hi  11°F Lo  -13°F Precip (in) 0.26in. Sat   4 OBSERVED Hi  10°F Lo  -21°F Precip (in) 0in.   5 OBSERVED Hi  -17°F Lo  -30°F Precip (in) 0in.   6 OBSERVED Hi  -19°F Lo  -30°F Precip (in) 0in.   7 OBSERVED Hi  -8°F Lo  -27°F Precip (in) 0in.

Source:  The Weather Channel, www.weather.com.

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.

Monthly Planner for Little Rock, AR [ English | Metric ]

Previous Month January Next Month Sun Mon Tue Wed   1 OBSERVED Hi  55°F Lo  27°F Precip (in) 0.04in. Thu   2 OBSERVED Hi  50°F Lo  26°F Precip (in) 0in. Fri   3 OBSERVED Hi  36°F Lo  18°F Precip (in) 0in. Sat   4 OBSERVED Hi  48°F Lo  21°F Precip (in) 0in.   5 OBSERVED Hi  55°F Lo  18°F Precip (in) 0.22in.   6 OBSERVED Hi  23°F Lo  12°F Precip (in) 0in.   7 OBSERVED Hi  38°F Lo  10°F Precip (in) 0in.

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.

Can the Corn

Don Surber, one the best bloggers blogging, wrote a dead tree media op-ed piece today, quoting song and verse, on the government ethanol mandate. Referring to Everly Brothers songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, Surber writes,

The duo also wrote the blue-grass classic "Rocky Top," a tribute to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee that the singer pines for, including the moonshine.

"Corn won't grow at all on Rocky Top, dirt's too rocky by far. That's why all the folks on Rocky Top, get their corn from a jar," one verse goes.

A jar is one place where corn belongs. Another place is on a cob. A third place is in a pig or a cow where the corn can eventually become bacon or a steak.

Corn does not belong in an automobile.

It's a corny requirement. Read it here, from the Charleston Daily Mail.

Rural ethanol plants, one of the"green" consequences of the political influence of corn state senators.  Young corn plants grow next to the Guardian Energy ethanol plant in Janesville, Minn (NPR).  How about scheduling the first Presidential primary in 2016 somewhere other than Iowa?

To Understand the Polar Vortex

It came down to the lower 48 like this.

To see the mechanics in action plug in your your old lava lamp.

Billings Rape Excusing Judge Calling it Quits

In south central Montana, the Billings Gazette reported overnight,

District Judge G. Todd Baugh will retire at the end of the year and not seek re-election.

A district court judge since 1985, Baugh announced his retirement to KTVQ on Monday.

Baugh came under intense fire and garnered national scorn in August when he said a 14-year-old rape victim appeared "older than her chronological age" and he sentenced her teacher-rapist Stacey Dean Rambold to just a month in prison.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/embattled-judge-won-t-seek-re-election-at-end-of/article_f8b45166-5d2a-59f7-80eb-e810238d793a.html#ixzz2pgbRMFvY

The girl killed herself. It is high time this judge's career dies as well. The case against protected lifetime judicial tenure is well made.

Record Antarctic Ice Cover

It's summer down in the Antarctic. But global warming researchers and eco-tourists trapped in a Russian research vessel down under, in the frozen ice pack, were evacuated by air when a Chinese ice breaker on a rescue mission itself became entombed in ice. The ships are not victims of a localized anomaly, for the Antarctic sea ice extent is at a record high, obliterating the previous mark for this date. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard has deployed an ice breaker to attempt to clean up the mess.

The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star left Australia Sunday and is steaming toward Antarctica to rescue crew members from the scientists’ Russian ship – and a Chinese vessel that came to its aid and also got stuck. 

The drama began Christmas Eve when the Russian MV Akademik Shokalskiy – carrying scientists and eco-tourists on a mission to study global warming – got trapped in sea ice. 

A Chinese icebreaker – the Xue Long or Snow Dragon – came to the Russian ship’s aid, sending its helicopter to ferry 52 of the scientists and passengers to the Aurora Australis, an Australian icebreaker.

 God bless everyone and good luck to all.

How to Dress in Arctic Air

Balaclava

Most of the country is dealing with uncommonly cold weather this week. The talking heads are saying if you are under 40 years old you have never experienced anything so frigid.  Our low was -11 degrees Fahrenheit last night, and the kids are off to school.  I'll be out and about this morning and off to the pool, without a second thought about the frigid weather.  It's just another January day in Bozeman and we know how to deal with it.

The key to protecting yourself in single digit and subzero weather is to dress for it. Yes, don't go outside unnecessarily (well, we will recreate outdoors in single digit temps here). But proper dress will allow you to survive, avoid frostbite and be reasonably comfortable. If you have ski pants or a snow suit wear it. On top wear multiple layers. At the max, I wear a t-shirt, a turtle neck, and a flannel shirt under a thick down filled hooded parka or ample Carhart coat zipped completely up to the chin. Wear long underwear, pantyhose or running tights under your pants or rain pants over. Wear thick socks in warm, snug, and insulated boots, preferably with a thick sole to maintain an insulated layer above the frigid ground.  Tie, clasp or snap the boots on with your pants securely tucked within to maintain an airlock.  

Heavyweight Carthart coat

Wear thick, insulated gloves or mittens (or thick on top of thin). Mittens are preffered. Tuck them into your sleeves. If you are wearing gloves and are outside for an extended period of time, pull your fingers into a ball inside of the glove whenever possible so they insulate one another.  Make sure your neck is covered by a scarf or balaclava.  You absolutely must cover your ears -- they are extremely vulnerable to frostbite and freezing. It is best to wear stocking hat under a tied parka hood.  Or wear a bomber hat. Have as little exposed face as possible. If you have ski goggles, bring them along.

Okay you guys, you can plan and do it now. Once you get in sync it only takes a few extra minutes to dress for the cold.  Have a great day and good luck to all.

Elementary school hallway in Bozeman, Montana

Get Competence Into Government

Our first term Congressman is 5th generation Montanan, Steve Daines, formerly of Proctor and Gamble, Daines Construction, and RightNow Technologies (Oracle Corporation). He is probably the most competent and grounded in real world economic experience member of the United States Congress. He has announced his candidacy to replace retiring Senator Max Baucus who played the lead role in managing the passage of the cost increasing, choice reducing spaghetti mess known as Obamacare through the United States Senate. In the Senate races coming up this fall there is probably no one more capable of helping our country get back on the right track than Steve Daines. The news story is here.

Congressman Steve DainesKTVQ story on my meeting with Crow Tribe leaders yesterday-- it's exciting to see the potential that exists on the Crow Reservation for responsible, job-creating energy development. Now it's time for Washington to get out of the way and allow the Crow Tribe to develop its resources and create good jobs for the Crow people.Crow leaders tell Congressman tribe needs jobs | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana
ktvq.com
CROW AGENCY - Congressman Steve Daines visited the Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations, on Saturday.Unlike ·  · Share · 1421 · about an hour ago · 

Epic Freeze Coming for the Great Lakes: Water Levels Already Back

The Great Lakes are icing up. As of Saturday, before the Arctic vortex moves in, here is the view. The early season freeze, while well ahead of schedule, is primarily along the most easily frozen western shores, and in shallow and wind-protected inlets, straits, coves and bays.

NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. 

What a difference two days make. Here is a view of the open Lake Michigan inlet to Muskegon Lake on Friday, January 3. 

Here is the same view, now ice packed, today January 5.

Lake Erie, with its shallow waters, is virtually certain to freeze over this winter.  Lake Michigan may be headed for 90 percent plus ice coverage.

WZZM TV in Muskegon, Michigan reports,

From a historical perspective, the current ice level is on track to do something we haven't seen in decades: cover most of Lake Michigan. Looking at a NOAA ice coverage map from January of 1977 it looks a lot like the current ice coverage map today, according to WZZM 13 Chief Meteorologist George Lessens, "1977 was one of the coldest winters on record."

Frozen lakes are causing problems for electricity producers and interfering with commerce.

Great Lakes ice can be a bad thing, especially for shipping: a week before Christmas, a freighter carrying 17,000 tons of coal got stuck on thick ice on Muskegon Lake. This meant Consumers Energy had to cancel its last two coal shipments of the winter. 

In Chicago, lakefront cruises have been cancelled and Coast Guard and contracted city personnel have been hard at work to prevent ice damage and keep shipping lanes open.
The early pockets of ice have prompted one Chicago cruise line to cancel its New Year's Eve fireworks cruise for the first time in five years. The company that manages harbors on the lakefront has started efforts to protect their docks from ice. And in the northern part of Lake Michigan, the Coast Guard has been busy breaking through ice, making sure shipping crews can make their scheduled deliveries.

Up at the entrance to Lake Superior Wisconsin Public Radio reported,

Coast Guard ice breakers and cutters Mackinaw and Biscayne Bay are working with Canadian cutters at the St. Mary's River, a bottleneck of boats connecting to Lake Superior. The ice has brought a few 1,000-foot-long super-carriers to a standstill.

Mathew Anderson is with the Coast Guard at Sault St. Marie, Michigan. “We've had a few that have gotten hung up in the turns, and that's primarily where it is, when they're trying to make a turn there's not room for the stern to come around in the ice. We've had icebreakers working in the lower river for the last few days.”

Ice breaking operations are also active in Green Bay.

Meanwhile, Ojard, who's been in the business for a few decades, says this just doesn't happen this early. “There's ice in Lake [Superior]! When have you seen that at the first part of December? I can't remember this early.”

The Great Lakes ecosystem has undergone a period of declining water levels. The AP reported a year ago,

Measurements taken last month show Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have reached their lowest ebb since record keeping began in 1918, and the lakes could set additional records over the next few months, the corps said. The lakes were 29 inches below their long-term average and had declined 17 inches since January 2012.

The other Great Lakes -- Superior, Erie and Ontario -- were also well below average.

"We're in an extreme situation," said Keith Kompoltowicz, watershed hydrology chief for the corps district office in Detroit.

Along the oceans the global warming shtick has been that warming temperatures are melting polar ice caps and driving up sea levels, threatening coastlines. For a period, great lakes water levels had been on the decline, so it had to be the warming planet and climate change, right?  High water, low water, it's all the same.  

Barack Obama's Department of Transportation jumped on board last year, claiming climate change causes "potential reductions over the next half-century from 4 to 14 inches on lake Superior; 10 to 44 inches on lakes Michigan and huron; 8 to 38 inches on lake St. Clair (which is part of the connecting channel between lake huron and lake erie); and 5 to 32 inches on lake Erie."

Pull out all the stops, panic, for the Great Lakes are drying up. If you don't believe, just ask Al Franken who thinks the Obama administration has not gone far enough.  

It's no secret that, partially due to climate change, the water levels in the Great Lakes are getting very low. It's becoming such a problem that six U.S. Senators from Great Lakes states are upset with President Obama for overlooking the Lakes in his Climate Action Plan. Here are a few excerpts of the letter to the President from Senators Levin, Durbin, Franken, Brown, Schumer, and Stabenow: 

"We applaud the Administration for releasing a climate action plan...but were disappointed that the Great Lakes were not mentioned.

"This year, Great Lakes water levels reached new historic lows severely hampering commercial shipping, jeopardizing recreational boating and fishing, devastating the tourism industry, threatening electric power generation, compromising water supply infrastructure, and exacerbating problems caused by invasive species. 

“In particular, the impacts of climate change on commerce and navigation should be of utmost importance. The Great Lakes Navigation System carries over 160 million tons of cargo annually. 

“Addressing the impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes region is essential for the long-term health, safety, and prosperity of our country.” 

Why is climate change linked to lower water levels in the Great Lakes? Some models predict that climate change will increase evaporation in the Great Lakes due to warmer temperatures, especially since reduced ice cover in winter leads to more evaporation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently published a great piece connecting Lake Michigan’s record low water levels, climate change, evaporation, loss of winter ice, and the consequences for local communities.

The only problem is that even before this winter's ice cover had an opportunity to appreciably affect evaporation, water levels for Lakes Superior, Erie and Ontario are back to normal, according to Bill Steffen.

Lake Superior is now back to the long-term average…so only Lake Michigan-Huron (which is a single lake for lake-level purposes, as the 2 lakes are connected at the Mac. Bridge and are at the same water level) is now below the long-term average.  Remember, more than one study has shown that the reduced level of Lake Michigan-Huron is mostly or completely due to dredging in the St. Clair River.  According to this article in the Milwaukee Journal “The St. Clair has been heavily dredged for over a century, and the federal government has long acknowledged that this human meddling in the riverbed has led to a permanent drop of about 16 inches from Michigan and Huron’s long-term average.  Alarmed by the fact that even the lakes’ peak levels had been below that average line for several years, a Canadian conservation group created by property owners from northern Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay hired its own engineering firm to conduct a study of what was going on in the St. Clair River back in 2004. That study said the water lost from the lakes by expanding the river channel was actually much greater than 16 inches – and getting worse.” 

Here’s the increase in water level for 2013:  Superior 12″, Michigan-Huron 14″, Erie 10″, Ontario 11″ and St. Clair 14″.  Superior is down 2″ in the last month (not surprising…it’s been too cold up north to melt anything and Superior is still mainly open water and there is some evaporation) and Michigan-Huron is down 1″ in the last month.  Lake Ontario is up to 2″ in the last month, Erie is up 4″ in the last month (a lot for Dec.) and Lake St. Clair is up 3″ month-to-month.  Lakes Erie and Ontario are now both 2″ above their century average, Lakes Superior and St. Clair are exactly at average and Lake Michigan-Huron is 14″ below the long-term average.

The New York Times confirms the dredging impacts.

Al Franken and his lefty loonie Senate compatriots don't have an ice floe to stand on. Let it be.

Top December Posts

We finished our first blogging year strong at Along the Gradyent despite blogging lite the last 9 days during our sojourn to Texas. Thanks to each and every reader for your time and attention and good will. Our top ten December posts by viewership were as follows.

1. We didn't know it at the time, but we started our home business by correcting mistake. In We Were a Third Party Amazon Seller we reminisced on our time riding the yard and estate sale circuit to buy inventory for our on-line resale business. The Washington DC metro area, with the country's highest median incomes, was a great place to build our inventory because government employee, contractor and lobbyist denizens were constantly buying nice things and then turning them over to clear space for the next. We bought furnishings, clothing, golf clubs, board games, video tapes, books, CD's, DVD's and most anything else we thought we could profit from.
2. In the 1970's climatologists tied to global cooling virtually everything that is linked to global warming today. Our Climate Change 1972 Style post noted that global starvation was the scare tactic back then, much like rising sea levels and disappearing polar ice caps are the scare tactic today. Too bad we were blogging lite when that expedition of global warming "scientists" got caught up in the Antarctic ice pack.
3. Breaking up the Wall Street brokerage cartel in the deregulation push of the 1970's and 80's was fantastic for individual savers and investors. Getting government out of the middle, as noted in Breaking up Cartels: Benefiting Individual Investors, dramatically reduced prices, spurred competition and improved access. We are waiting for the masses to figure out that Obamacare's supply side creates a massive, iron-fisted, government enforced cartel. Good luck to all.
4. Below zero air masses in arctic systems are so heavy that they can result in a temperature inversion. We described and documented the phenomenon in Arctic Air Is Different. It was -2°F at the top of the Gallitan range and -13°F 2,600 feet down at the base of the Bridger Bowl Ski area. As I draft this highlight post on 1/4/2014 at 5:00 pm the more typical pattern of temperature falling with increased elevations prevails with a reading of 3°F atop the mountain compared to 14°F at the base. You can check out the current readings here. 
5. In Global Warming: Spitting in the Wind we reported that the "father of climatology" said "You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide." It turns out I went to college with his students, most prominently Bill Steffen, a fellow Evans Scholar and debunker of global warming panics. For 39 years he has been a TV weather forecaster in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He publishes an informative blog.
6. Our friends at American Thinker provided an around the Christmas Tree discussion guide for roping in your adult children to buy Obamacare. Someone needs to subsidize the Baby Boomers. Check it out at Health Insurance Roasting Over Open Fires.
7. In Staring at the Black Line we recounted a brush with Olympic fame.
8. Hallelujah Food Court Flash Mob linked to the now classic flash mob performance.
9. Friday Watercolors featured the talents of our talented sixth grader.
10. The budget deal added to the debt bomb and kicked its resolution down the road leaving Coal in Our Offspring's Stocking.

Happy 2014 everyone and good luck to all.

Redistributive Justice

The world of equality, re-distributive taxes, government operated markets and social justice is alive and well in Cuba.

HAVANA (AP) — Talk about sticker shock! 

President Barack Obama sharing the love with
Cuban legacy dictator Raul Castro.

Cubans are eagerly flocking to Havana car dealerships as a new law takes effect eliminating a special permit requirement that has greatly restricted vehicle ownership in the country. To their dismay on Friday, the first day the law was in force, they found sharply hiked prices, some of them light years beyond all but the most well-heeled islanders.

A new Kia Rio hatchback that starts at $13,600 in the United States sells for $42,000 here, while a fresh-off-the-lot Peugeot 508 family car, the most luxurious of which lists for the equivalent of about $53,000 in the U.K., will set you back a cool $262,000.

"Between all my family here in Cuba and over in Miami, we couldn't come up with that kind of money," said Gilbert Losada, a 28-year-old musical director. "We're going to wait and see if they lower the prices, which are really crazy. We're really disappointed."

Cuba's Communist-run government traditionally has placed huge markups on retail goods and services paid for with hard currency, a policy that amounts to a tax on people who can afford such goods. The practice applies to everything from dried pasta, to household appliances, to Internet access.

Through a series of mandates, penalties, excise and income taxes Obamacare is a massive re-distributive tax program that doesn't educate a single nurse, train a single doctor, open a single clinic or build a single hospital. Welcome to the world of socialism Havana style. Best wishes and good luck to all. 

Don't Move, Have a Baby or Get Married or Divorced Under Obamacare

Put your life on hold dude. Because Barack Obama, Kathleen Sebelius and the small-minded, naval gazing social engineers who are responsible for the Obamacare website Healthcare.Gov and their zombie supporters have neglected to allow for these ordinary life changes in their infinite wisdom and their incessant need to control your life.

WASHINGTON — There’s another quirk in the Obama administration’s new health insurance system: It lacks a way for consumers to quickly and easily update their coverage for the birth of a baby and other common life changes.
With regular private insurance, parents just notify the health plan. Insurers will still cover new babies, the administration says, but parents will also have to contact the government at some point later on. 

Right now the HealthCare.gov website can’t handle such updates.

There is more,

It’s not just having a new baby that could create bureaucratic hassles, but other life changes affecting a consumer’s taxpayer-subsidized premiums. The list includes marriage and divorce, a death in the family, a new job or a change in income, even moving to a different community.

There is shrinking minority of Americans (notably including some of the 1 percent who are now ecstatic that younger Americans will subsidize their healthcare benefits and pay for their antacid pills) who support the government's senseless, uneconomic and incompetent intervention.

Insurers say computerized “change in circumstance” updates to deal with family and life developments were supposed to have been part of the federal system from the start.
But that feature got postponed as the government scrambled to fix technical problems that overwhelmed thehealth care website during its first couple of months. 

“It’s just another example of ‘We’ll fix that later,’” said Bob Laszewski, an industry consultant who said he’s gotten complaints from several insurer clients. “This needed to be done well before January. It’s sort of a fly-by-night approach.”

I have gone through all these life changes myself or has my wife.  It took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes filling our forms and registering phone calls to accommodate the same when the all knowing, beneficent and incompetent government wasn't involved. Assuredly, everyone will avoid going through life changes while the one size fits all, government monopoly waits to interpose its will.

There is no wizard behind the curtain, but best wishes to everyone and good luck to all.

Returning to Her Roots

Yesterday we drove to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to catch a United flight to Denver, connecting with a United Express flight back home to Bozeman. The planes were filled mostly with holiday travelers, including families, individual college students, servicemen and women returning to their posts for duty and skiers destined for points west in Colorado and up to Big Sky near Bozeman. While the flights were overbooked, all the standbys were able to board and several seats were empty ultimately due to missed connections resulting from delays and cancellations caused by the winter storm headed through the Midwest and on to the Northeast. Having started near the Gulf Coast I didn't spy anyone wearing shorts until we boarded the connecting flight to Bozeman. Go figure. 

We visited my in laws in Huntsville, Texas where one of our activities was to visit "the shop" as they refer to the family business, dba Wagamon Printing, a short run printing operation. The best customers are a local hospital and a bank. 

My brother-in-law Jack and his sister operate the enterprise. With the demand for specialty forms, printed checks, flyers, business cards, letterhead and printed envelopes being nowhere near what it once was, causing their offset printing business volumes to fall like a rock, Jack went out a couple of years ago looking to diversify and procured equipment to run a screen printing line. Wagamon printing now screen prints yard signs and appreciates (no they adore) hotly contested political contests. Teresa and her dad, Doc, are venerated founders of the 30-year old business. But now when they cross town to spend a few hours at the shop they serve an even more valued function -- free labor.

The shop is located a couple of blocks up from the campus of Sam Houston State University and a block away from bordering upscale apartments. The shop has a large paved, and currently unused parking area. Jack's next plan is to use recycled shipping containers to build stacked apartments for the student market on that north section of the lot. Stacked containers are lean and green and have the cool factor working for them -- and more floor space than efficiency apartments and the dorms. We will be keeping tabs and offering unsolicited advice.

When Jack isn't printing he is cold calling whoever has filed to run in the next primary campaign.

Following is our shop visit in pictures and samples of signs.

Screen printing line -- a barrel of ink (black container) automated screen table (angled yellow screen), take away belt (flat belt middle right) and dry lamp (green control unit far right).

Jack holds down take away table while supervising Teresa and Doc.

Put Texas First! "Dwayne Stovall is a candidate for the Republican nomination for U. S. Senator w/ Jeffersonian principles; federalism, republicanism, and limited government."  The Wagamon's wish him well, not necessarily because of his politics but because they have the yard sign account.

There are more than Laddies and Lannies in Texas than you can shake a stick at. Laddie lost his re-election campaign for County Commissioner running as a Democrat last November.  Now he aims to resurrect his political career running as a Republican for County Judge.

Wagamon Printing screen prints signs for the prospective competition (here is doubting Jack dubs the container apartments with a name ending in "e").

Local lawyer running for judge.

Local service advertising.

Realtor signage.

Sign advertising Charity promotion.

During Fugate's primary campaign he said, “I will be accessible to constituents, and have the best coffee.” Fugate didn't make it to the general.

Jack printed these up when he was sparring with the old guard on the Huntsville City Council.

Shane Barge is currently serving on the New Waverly Independent School District school board.

The Junior Service League of Huntsville puts on the Pistols & Pearls BBQ Benefit each year to support a local charity.

Doc stacking and counting the "green" run out of the dryer.

Let the Tax Breaks Go Dude

It's time for a little deficit busting exercise. Let all the expiring tax breaks go, let all 55 of them go.  Here are some highlights from the Tax Foundation.

There are a couple of expiring provisions that many individual taxpayers will care about:

• The tax subsidy for riding mass transit will fall from about $245 a month to $130.  The tax subsidy for parking will remain at $250.

• The deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses will expire.

• The ability to donate money from your IRA tax-free will expire. This has been very popular with retirees.

• The amount that banks write off in mortgage loan forgiveness for people whose houses are under water has been tax exempt, but will once again be counted as income for tax purposes.
  

Many businesses will care about these expiring items:

• The tax credit for research and development (R&D).

• Small businesses will see a reduction in the amount of equipment purchases they can expense (so-called 179 expensing).

• Big businesses will lose the 50% bonus expensing for capital investments.

• Multinational businesses will lose two key provisions: “Active financing,” which is the equivalent of deferral for  banks and businesses that finance the foreign sale of their own products (such as tractors); and, “look-through treatment,” which allows companies to move cash between foreign subsidiaries without triggering a U.S. tax liability.    

Some tax breaks most of us won’t miss:

• Special expensing for film and TV productions.

• 3-year write off for race horses under two years old.

• Faster depreciation for motor racing tracks.

• Lots of tax subsidies for renewable energy programs such as biodiesel, electric motorcycles, and energy-efficient appliances.

An economy where the players produce value by making choices of their own in a tax neutral environment is a much stronger economy that produces yet more revenue from enhanced growth. That's what tax reform is about. Let the favors go, every one of them.

Dudes if it's good for you, that doesn't mean it's good for America -- usually quite the opposite. Washington sitting on its hands and not renewing will add $50 plus billion to the bottom line. Do it. KA-CHING.