Grumble Weed: 08/29/09

"Rooted" may be a better choice of words. What you see above is the top of an actual fence post that used to sit on my property.

The photograph above represents what I eventually came to see whenever I paid it a visit. So I brought it to life with my camera and some computer software simply as an exercise in creativity.

I can only attest for the 23 years I have lived here but local historians believe it's a good bet this post was probably placed in the ground over a hundred years ago. The general consensus is that it was set where it shouldn't of been; just outside my property line.

So last spring when the city of Alpine was reassessing it's property the location of my errant post was duly noted.

When I took down the fence [by demand] this post was so stubborn I had to pull it out with a tow chain hitched to the chassis of my truck. Apparently it was placed in the ground when it was still alive and as a result of an apparent "last gasp" effort, it sprouted roots. Seriously, a fence post with actual roots.

My wife has labeled me as a know-it-all (and as she is one herself she must certainly be correct). Know it or not it's her rhetoric reference to the the fact that my opinions are rooted in 62 years of experience. The fence post story illustrates the fact that right or wrong, in the end, even the most established and rooted of "whatever" can be dislodged with proper persuasion. So please feel free to attempt to dislodge any of my opinions that follow if deemed necessary.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Ah, yes, good old bureaucracy...

Quietly we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, established during the Carter Administration?

We've spent several hundred billions of dollars in support of an agency ...the reason for which few people who read this can remember.

The 'Department of Energy' was instituted on 8-04-1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Now 32 years later it has a budget of 26.4 billion dollars a year, 16 thousand federal employees and approximately 100,000 contract employees. And we’re still dependent on foreign oil.

Does anybody else out there see the main reason for this as being powerful lobbyists greasing the palms of career politicians?

We’ve currently turned over our entire banking system and a large segment of our automobile industry to our government and now we’re considering doing the same with health care.

What??

- Larry