Hayseeds No. 25

One Final Week.

And then I'll be done with my summer job.

At that point, I'll mention where I worked this summer (it's not that impressive), and I'll talk a little bit about my opinion on the whole thing.

I sent in my bill for SUNY Albany, well tommorow. I filled it out tonight. So hopefully that will be all paid up, and I'll be ready to go.

I was up at Cole Hill for a while this afternoon. It was nice up there, until it started to get fairly cloudy, and I head thunder in the distance. It rained a bit on the way home, and I heard a few cracks of thunder at home, but nothing major.

Friday evening, took down my HO trainset—it was in such disrepair, and cleaned up under the set. I tossed quite a bit off stuff—I ended up burning about 3 feed bags full of junk (mostly cruddy boxes, paper, and dust, and a few small plastic things), and a bag of stuff to go to the dump (some really falling apart shoes, broken telephones well stripped of usable parts, and batteries—all stuff I didn't want to burn—I kind of like semi-clean air, you know—and I don't exactly live on a farm with lots of area between me and my neighboors).

Well, everything is a looking good, and I have a bunch more room. The good news is, now I won't have to deal with this mess. It was fun to watch the big flames shoot up out of the burn barrel—all things my parents wouldn't let me do when they were around (see, they've moved beyond the goats and doing it all your self stage).

My parents are back tonight. It was a fun week without them here, but it will be nice not to have to cook all the time. Plus, I really don't enjoy driving in all the time to work.

The Big Black Out.

And how those more self-reliant people didn't notice it as much.

Yeah, as the big news has been around here. 50 million people in the dark, and the cities being even more hellish then usual. Can you say flashing yellow, and flashing red traffic lights everywhere?

The reality of it is, you don't want to be near the city when the power goes out. Even for those in Albany who had power out for an extended time, didn't have the hell that those people in New York City had to go through—no subways, and total grid lock everywheres (versus partial grid lock in Albany).

Some people didn't notice the black out at all. People in more rural areas seemed in general to have the shortest delay in the power outage. And then there are those people who generate their own power.

Those people with solar or wind power, and are off the grid didn't really notice the outage that much at all. The price for that solar/wind power stuff is actually quite reasonable—the article quoted a price of $4,000-$10,00—which is pretty cheap, imho. If your on the grid, you get tax credits and low interest financing to put in solar panels and the like—very nice.

The other, more dirty alternative is to have a generator to power what you need. But few generators have the power to power a full house a time. And gasoline is expensive. But generators are good for those who need them—as noted on WAMC on Friday, most farmers use them to power there milking machines when the power is out—no sore hands, I guess.

I don't know—it's just not as freaking cool as solar/wind power and living off the grid, in a cabin in the woods.

Tonight's Theme is Food.

On our fabolous politicking cook show.

So what's the on table for tonight? Food stamps, pot bake beans, and milk. Sounds delious.

First off, with the pot bake beans. Everybody loves a little bit of wacky-tabaky in with their bake beans—especially if you name is George E. Pataki. That's how our governor tried his marry-ju-wana when he was at Columbia in the 1960s.

Fortunetly for the rest of us New Yorkers, he decided that he really didn't like Mary, as it kind of makes him anti-social. So he much perferred having a cold one, and speaking his mind when he was drunk.

Far more socially acceptable—especially in the politico scene. Not to mention legal—I knew there was a reason for legal beer and not marajuna.

Everybody here thinks I'm nuts by now. But I tell you, read Pataki: An Autobiography, and you'll find out its true. That is, once I pay off my 30¢ off my library card and return that book.

Now on to Food Stamps.

And the darker issue of hunger.

If you open up The Nation this month, you'll see the feature story is about hunger in America, and how our food stamps program is failing many Americans.

I happen to think that is a real disgrace—after all, aren't we a nation with big agricultural surpluses that we don't know what to do with? And we have hungry people. Food stamps cost the US government less then 2% of it's budget each year (according to The Nation

Food stamps are different from AFDC and TANF, as it's not money, but instead vochers for food—a fairly specific purpose. Yes, it's true that it sometimes frees up a little money for poor people to burn other ways—like paying rent or paying off college loans, but it's not that much. It's important to prevent people from going hungry.

It seems like a lot more people who get food stamps are those who actually work, but are unable to get enough money to maintain a basic state of living—rent and transportation are very expensive. We as a society have a duty to do what's right.

Last week (or was it this week?), there was an article about how the State of New York was without any kind of procedure to challenge it, seizing tax returns of people, who suppostly got too much food stamp money. Too much food stamp money? That means we made these people too fat?

Face it, those who got food stamps in the past are very likely to still be very or quite poor now. So we are going to starve poor people, because the government f@cked up? How about we get right the first time, you f@cking government beaucrats, and when you screw up—you eat the loss out of your own paychecks.

See, that would be an incentive to do things the right way. Unions and the DOL would probably pop their eyes out on that solution—but it would take the money away from those poor government beaucrats, and not people who are struggling to make it.

M of A Pat Manning on Milk Prices.

His commentary on WAMC on Friday was quite interesting. Try looking for his commentary on Midday mag page—I couldn't find it, but you may be able to.

Yeap, more bitching about low milk prices. But Pat Manning is great fun to listen to, and he's even more fun to watch during Assembly Environmental Conservation committee meetings (he's the ranking minority on that committe).

His facts are pretty straight forward—we pay $2.40 or so for milk, and farmers get about a $1. Yeah, it's not like they do anything—we know that those silly milking machines do all the work.

And I personally perfer ugly subdivisions to pretty little farms dotting the landscape. Who likes low taxes, subsidized by farmers paying out of their ass? I'd rather pay a bigger tax bill. It's not like the $130 bucks of tax every two weeks out of my paycheck is enough milking of me for the (mostly big bad federal) government.

Don't forget Pat Manning voted against the open burning bill, and the Outdoor Recreation Act bill thingy was his idea—even if its as dead as dead. The moderate division of the NYGOP really rocks—even if I am still a devilworshiper.