How Much Can Drones See?

Liz Klimas shares photos showing how much detailed information can be photographed and transmitted by drone aircraft:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/29/worried-new-drone-mounted-camera-can-tell-what-youre-wearing-from-17500-feet/

Quilts by MMegaera (MMJustus)

Thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for sharing this link to the quilt collection of a blogger known to LiveJournal as Mmegaera, in other parts of cyberspace as MMJustus:

http://mmjustus.com/imagepage.html

Beautiful traditional-type quilts with a recognizable Pacific Northwest flavor. Inspiring for all crafters. Thanks for sharing!

Mutual Readers from Don Shelton's Blog?

This web site appreciates all those who direct readers to us, mainly e-friends and search engines. We're not sure why we have a small but steady common readership with science fiction author Graham Storrs, but we welcome those readers. Today I'm pleased, but baffled, to find that readers have been steered to my page after opening this page:

http://british-miniatures2.blogspot.com/2008/09/bone-henry-portrait-of-sir-anthony.html

If you have time to learn some fun facts about a nineteenth-century English intellectual, this will be a rewarding read. But what's the common interest that's steering readers from that page to this page? I can't find one, unless someone out there is desperately searching every passing reference to Karl Marx, who's mentioned at both sites. Or to any and all people called Gilbert, and good luck to them--I am not authorized to share e-friend Carol Bengle Gilbert's family history, but I'm fairly sure she's not related to the English art collector Don Shelton mentions. Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft...that family is the topic of the book one of you local lurkers borrowed from me last year and has yet to return, but I've not posted anything about that book here yet. So, what's the link?

Anyway, thanks to whoever-you-are, for connecting me with an apparently abandoned, though promising, blog with lots of fun facts and pretty pictures.

Michelle Malkin Considers Common Core

Michelle Malkin turns her attention to the "Common Core Curriculum," discussing, among other things, how it would "protect" children from having to learn how to divide whole numbers until they're in grade six...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/338428/common-core-corrupts-michelle-malkin

Karen Bracken, who shared this link, says there's a follow-up article at townhall.com, but it's not opening for me:

http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2013/01/25/rotten-to-the-core-part-2-readin-writin-and-deconstructionism-n1497018/page/full/

Children can learn to divide whole numbers in grade four. Would anyone out there like me to explain (again) how my teacher imparted this knowledge to my whole class?

HB 3240: Would Virginia Enforce a Gun Grab?

Virginia House Bill 3240 would, if enacted, withhold support from any federal attempt to keep citizens from owning firearms...

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2340

...but Mytheos Holt is probably right about the actual effect this bill would have if enacted.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/28/virginia-could-soon-refuse-to-enforce-federal-gun-control/

Phenology: Thaw (After Ice Storm)

On Friday everything in Scott County closed again because we had a light, yet freezing, rain. This "storm," hardly visible to the naked eye, did at least give us all a good illustration of what the phrase "black ice" means.

"Black ice" is very clear, transparent ice that enhances the color of whatever is underneath it. When that is the asphalt surface of a highway, the ice looks black. When it's the small, broad, evergreen leaves of the privet hedge in front of the Cat Sanctuary, the ice looks deep, glossy green, almost like Christmas wrapping. When it coats twigs on every tree in the forest, as it did on Friday, and the sun shines through the ice, as it did on Saturday, the ice looks incandescent, like millions of little bright light bulbs.

"Black ice" is hard to see and makes roads very hard to use. Walking, even with sticks, can become dangerous. Will grass provide traction? Sand? Whoa...maybe not!

During "storms" like this one Southerners reserve the right to give ourselves more holidays and feel sorry for Northerners, who see this kind of weather often enough that they expect anybody to go to work during it. We know that nobody can be asked to do much of anything when there is reported to be any black ice anywhere.

For once, Kingsport, Tennessee, got the power outage, and Gate City, Virginia, didn't. Nevertheless, the five-foot wall of books on the library desk, here at the computer center, silently explains how many people weren't able to use this public building on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Many didn't even leave their homes until midafternoon.

We were all reasonably comfortable at the Cat Sanctuary...especially the kitten Iris, who was nursing her bronchitis a few feet away from the heater in the warm room when a friend drove up to check on us. Iris was taken for a ride in a car. She took to the idea of riding in a car at once, and was the best behaved cat with whom I've shared a car since Magic's time. By way of a reward she was taken to visit her brother Mo's new home. She and Mo obviously recognized each other (Iris did not greet the other resident cats) and seemed glad to see each other again. After confirming that they remembered each other they got cat-sized dishes of baked salmon.

Boneta Bill Rally (In Minutes)

If you're within driving distance of Richmond this afternoon, you might want to turn off the computer and catch this rally:

The “Boneta Bill” (named after Martha Boneta, the farmer in question) - HB 1430 will strengthen Virginia’s Right-to-Farm law and support our local farmers

 

Please join us at the RALLY

at the Bell Tower on the Capitol grounds

at 3:30 PM and the press conference at 4:00 PM

This web site has already discussed the Boneta Bill, named after a family farmer who's been harassed by local officials infatuated with regulations and land grabs. You know that if any of us were in Richmond, we'd be there.

HB 2208: Party Conventions Outlawed?

Virginia House Bill 2208 is a really strange one, but I'm told there are some strange ones before the Legislature this year...maybe because citizens are using the Internet to participate in the process. On the surface of it, HB 2208 looks perfectly reasonable to me.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2208

So does its counterpart, Senate Bill 1260:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+SB1260

Here are the controversial words:

"No political party, through its duly constituted authorities, shall determine that its candidates for statewide or General Assembly district office shall be nominated by a method that will have the practical effect of excluding participation in the nominating process by otherwise eligible active duty military personnel, including military reservists and Virginia National Guard personnel, or by individuals unable to attend meetings because of injuries suffered in military service, regardless of the duty station or location of such personnel or individuals."

How bad is that? Well...Carol Stopps warns that, if enacted in their current forms, these bills would effectively outlaw traditional political party conventions.

I'm still not sure for how long, or what the ramifications of this bill might be. A political party that can afford, or justify, renting a convention space undoubtedly has members who have free cell phone minutes and could allow military personnel to participate via live chat, so how many conventions could this bill even slow down? Or is the idea that, in order to allow military personnel to participate in political party conventions via live chat, somebody out there will have to be authorized to run background checks on everyone who wants to use live chat, and the real target of this bill is anonymous access to the Internet?

I can see how these bills could be fixed. "Eligible" military personnel could be defined as military personnel who had arranged in advance, either (a) to get leave to participate in a convention, or (b) to have a proxy who could confirm their identities read their nominations and recommendations.

Seriously, for those who've not heard of proxy voting before, my local telephone co-op has been using the system regularly for years. If you want to attend a board meeting and can't, you designate a relative to attend and vote in your place. This person is your proxy. Proxies can be instructed how to vote in advance, or can check in via cell phone at the last minute.

Proxy voting, as it might be done by family members, would ensure our troops the right to participate fully in the convention process even if they were in combat during a convention. It's legal, ethical, effective, and even traditional. Write it into these bills, and they'll be just fine.

Without writing in something about proxy voting, however, these bills could be ruled unconstitutional.

HB 1430 Update: Pitchfork Protest in Richmond

Here is the official invitation from Patricia Evans. I'm 100% sure that the "sound of the guns" mentioned below is meant to be metaphoric. Tea Party demonstrations should be lighthearted yet sober...

"Pitchfork Protest in Richmond on Monday, 28 Jan in SUPPORT of HB 1430, The Boneta Bill


We need hundreds of people at the Virginia State Capitol in support of our farmers. We will be meeting at 3:30 pm on the corner of N 10th St and Bank Street. Signs, banners and pitchfork facsimiles are permissible on the public sidewalk and no permit is needed.

SO COME ON DOWN!!!

Original Announcement Posted on Fauquier Free Citizen:

Don’t Mess With Farmers!

HB1430 protects the rights of farmers to engage in commerce for the sale of agricultural products and byproducts without interference and over-regulation by local government.

Supporters of HB 1430, the Boneta Bill introduced on January 8th by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, will bring the Pitchfork Protest to the State Capitol in Richmond on January 28th.

Organizers expect to garner significant media attention as well, since this bill has quickly become the most controversial bill of the legislative session, and indeed this legislation is being watched closely by property rights groups all across the nation.

The following announcement has gone out to farmers, property rights supporters, and other organizations Statewide.

Pitchfork Protest Comes to Richmond!

The Boneta Bill, H.B. 1430, will be heard Monday, January 28 at 5 pm by the Virginia House Ag Committee.

We need hundreds of people at the Virginia State Capitol. We need the original Pitchfork Protest (from August in Warrenton) on steroids!

Tentative plan subject to change: Rally to begin at 3:30 p.m. at the Capitol and press conference at 4 p.m. so we can then get through security for the hearing.

Please ready announcements to your lists, on your websites, social media, etc. Alert your press contacts.

Get people there. Be like Fauquier County zoning Czar Kim Johnson; tell people they are “out of line” and threaten them with $5,000 fines if they refuse to go.

Be ready to sing Happy Birthday to the Fauquier County supervisors who will be there to testify that they need more power to regulate birthday parties for little girls and the sale of organic herbal tea.

Don’t wait for instructions. “Rush to the sound of the guns!”

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson Virginia Tea Party Patriots www.virginiateapartypatriots.com Danville Patriots http://danvillepatriots.com/ "

Pris Sticks Her Neck Out: HB 2256

Virginia House Bill 2256 seems to be a divisive issue between Delegates O'Quinn and Kilgore, Congressman Griffith for that matter, and the Tea Parties.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2256

What's the problem with this nice little bit of parliamentary language? Well, first of all, it implies spending tax money. What all Tea Parties have in common is a belief that Americans are Taxed Enough Already. But there's also a conflict between two groups of basically nice, decent, well-meaning people who want most of the same things.

On one side, we have legislators (and mainstream Republicans, like our friends and neighbors in Round the Mountain, The Crooked Road, and similar) who want (a) to protect our beautiful little corner of Virginia from fracking and similar horrors, and (b) to help people make money by marketing what we have. Some of these people think the way to preserve, protect, and market what we have is to allow "planning" as long as it's done by our kind of nice, literate, arty, sensitive people.

I can relate...until I started thinking, last September, "Oh golly-gee-whiz, if 'we' the artists and musicians and small farmers start 'planning,' aside of course from protecting our market niche by keeping others out of it, what else could we do to enhance our marketing scheme?" And really, when you've read what the "planners" have attempted--and succeeded in doing!--in more crowded and benighted parts of the world, you realize that the sky can be the limit. It's all being supported by powerful international interests that really want to thin the U.S. population and grab U.S. land. That's not a "panic" story; it's a fact that Karen Bracken seems to be spending her life documenting. But these interests, or the people interested in them, will encourage and even give us money to do all sorts of things that seem nice, but actually involve infringing on our neighbors' freedom.

So I posted a snarky little article about five fascist fantasies I could be tempted to act out in order to market my family's Civil War history as a nice nonviolent attraction for a small but loyal market niche, the "hardcore" history buffs who would basically pay more to spend a weekend at a boardinghouse if the whole surrounding neighborhood had been shoved back into the nineteenth century. And yesterday I managed to open, just once, never again, a four-page PDF article documenting that that cute little tourist train proposal described in SB 819 had been "planned" as exactly that sort of thing. People wouldn't be able to cut down their own tree merely because it was starting to drop limbs on their roof; they'd have to apply to the Preservation Society for permission to cut down or even prune the tree, because that would change the view for the tourists.

Thinking about this kind of thing makes some of us, as of yesterday apparently including Delegate O'Quinn, feel more sympathy for the other side, where we find some of these Tea Parties. Nice, respectable, educated people, much like the mainstream Republicans, only they've been reading more about U.N. Agenda 21, thanks to Karen Bracken and others. Actually, the mainstream Republicans have by now embraced the idea of defeating Agenda 21, the agenda of those international interests that really want to do to us what a lot of our ancestors, if not Delegate Kilgore's or mine, did to the Cherokee when they came here. So the Tea Party types want (1) to affirm our right to own our land and use it as we see fit (I feel the same way) and (2) to oppose anything that sounds the least bit like Agenda 21, which is hard, because Agenda 21 was formulated on the diabolical principle of choking cats with cream. Agenda 21 seems to be all about the same things we want...only underneath it's, well, not. It's so not. It's not even Poison Green; it's Soylent Green.

I have a modest proposal to make to both of these groups--of readers, and of people who aren't readers of this web site yet (but I hope you will be). I wouldn't dare to make this proposal if I hadn't done something similar while working for George Peters, and if Terry Kilgore hadn't been involved in that too. I doubt very much that The Crooked Road is going to divide people with as much emotional intensity as late-term abortion did. We started out with people from opposite points of view, and worked our way to a consensus, on late-term abortion. We can do the same thing with conservation and tourism if people will agree to try it.

The alternative is to go into permanent horn-lock and the sort of "Vote against this legislator, no vote for this other legislator, no this legislator is the Real Conservative" blather that allows the Extreme Left to win elections in a deeply conservative State. Delegate Kilgore is neck-deep in verbiage at the moment and probably isn't going to read this right away, but I'm sure that, after the legislative session, he can still remember George Peters saying "You can do better than that!" We can, and we should, and a web page is the perfect place to do it. Much more efficient than working with taped discussions among blind people. (The discussion is of course open to blind people; this is the twenty-first century, and they have Optacons and can participate as efficiently as anyone else can.)

I mediated the abortion debate, mainly because I was physically better qualified than the mostly disabled senior citizens who did much of the debating. I'm willing to mediate in a Crooked Road debate too. Or if discussants want someone else to mediate, that's also fine, but I have this web site.

If chosen to mediate, I propose two rules:

(1) No matter how infuriating the other side's argument is, don't make yours ad hominem. I remember, during the abortion debate, yanking tapes out of the machine and throwing them across the room. I think everyone did. So, okay, privately we can say things like "Who elected this person?" and "Nobody would ever have elected this person" and so on. But we have to keep up the quest for consensus, come up with answers that will be acceptable to the public, and avoid letting the fiscal conservatives of this Commonwealth be divided and conquered by our real mutual adversaries.

(2) The use of force or compulsion is inherently wrong and is justified only to prevent material injury being done to another person. Or, in more specifically applicable terms...the things the "planners" present as long-term goals are often excellent things, but if so the focus needs to be on selling them to people rather than forcing them on people. Like, a tourist train could be a ton of fun for everyone involved if the people operating the train weren't trying to interfere with property owners' right to use their own trees as they saw fit. Or, fracking can be opposed on the grounds that it would do material injury to other people, rather than needing to be opposed because it would interfere with a "plan" somebody is trying to force upon the rest of us.

I'm not attached to the idea of mediating this debate, myself, at all. I am attached to the idea that we have to have it--probably we should have had it last year, because it doesn't fit into the legislative session's schedule. I think it will be easier for consensus to be reached if, instead of doing a formal debate as a one-hour or two-hour performance, we do an informal discussion over a few months, drawing in and educating more people and collecting more input, as Mr. Peters did with the abortion debate. I have the clear memory of how this was done, and how rewarding it was in the end. If someone else feels more qualified to do it, let that person step forward.

HB 1314: Identical Policies That Don't Cover Contraception

Virginia House Bill 1314 would, if enacted, require insurance companies to provide for customers who request them "identical policies" that don't cover contraception, abortion, or sterilization.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1314

They're being forced to buy into the insurance racket, and all they're complaining about is the possibility that a policy might cover a procedure they don't intend to have? Delegates Marshall, Fariss, and Gilbert and Senator Black seem to have been listening to some of their constituents. The question is to whom or what these constituents have been listening.

HB 1307: You Can't Cash a Welfare Check at a Liquor Store?

Virginia House Bill 1307 is one of those bills that leaves you wondering...it's not already in there because nobody thought it would be necessary?

 http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1307

"Temporary Assistance for Needy Families paid to an eligible recipient pursuant to this chapter shall not be used (i) for the purchase of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, or lottery tickets or (ii) in any transaction in any (a) government store established for the sale of alcoholic beverages, (b) establishment in which pari-mutuel wagering or charitable gaming is conducted, or (c) establishment that provides adult-oriented entertainment in which performers or other individuals connected with the business appear nude or partially nude."

HB 1303: Tax Credit for Hiring Public School Graduates

Virginia House Bill 1303 would, if enacted, provide tax credits for small businesses that "create new jobs" for which they're able to hire someone who's earned an associate or bachelor's degree at a Virginia college or university.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1303

I love this thought. I wish, although it's probably not practical this year, that we could cut back spending to the point of making this bill retroactive and giving state tax credits to anyone who's earned any kind of degree or diploma from any of our public schools.

Reporter and Son Harassed for Publishing Truth?

Karen Bracken shares this preview of an upcoming radio show, automatically reformatted by the computer:

"Please tune in tonight for what will prove to be a riveting interview.

Please forward to other Anti-Agenda 21 - ICLEI American Patriots!

American Statesman Blog Talk Radio - Tonight 7:00 PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/americanstatesman/2013/01/25/stacy-lynne-suffers-political-retaliation-for-exposing-facts

Investigative Reporter Stacy Lynne Suffers Political Retaliation for Exposing Facts

Stacy's son Jaden then becomes the target of political retaliation

Investigative Journalist, Stacy Lynne, exposes facts about Fort Collins, Larimer County, CO and Agenda 21, International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Stacy's son Jaden then becomes the target of political retaliation.

Fort Collins is a member of ICLEI since 1993.

ICLEI is local Agenda 21, an environmental program of the United Nations.

Exposes facts about radical environmentalists' allegations and destruction from so-called "sustainability" programs.

Exposes facts about the individual damage that ICLEI and Agenda 21, especially minority populations and disadvantaged groups.

Agenda21/ICLEI defeated in multiple communities saved hundreds of jobs and protected individual rights.

Stacy's 8 year old son, Jaden, became the target of political retaliation. With the help of a corrupt judicial system.Jaden was severed from his mom and his entire life on December 21, 2011.

Judge Julie Kunce Field knew at the time she issued her order the biological father did not have a home, a car, or a job.

Judge Field also heard credible testimony that the biological father had threatened to kill Stacy Lynne and Jaden.

Stacy Lynne was illegally arrested, illegally cell-phone tapped, illegally jailed, and illegally tracked via GPS device for more than 4 months.

Jaden has been living primarily in a horse trailer since he was taken from his mom 14 months ago and failed third grade. Jaden has not seen his mom since October 30, 2012 and have not spoken since December 28, 2012.

Stacy Lynne was never charged with any wrongdoing against Jaden. This was pure political retaliation.

Karen Bracken - I WILL NOT COMPLY - WILL YOU?

www.americadontforget.com"

Do You Own an Assault Weapon? Can You Tell?

Jason Howerton has captured a photograph of a proposed list of firearms the Non-Learners would like to outlaw, in the touchingly naive belief that banning these objects from legitimate U.S. stores would keep them from being smuggled in by the narcotraficantes and being used to kill Americans:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/24/dems-reintroduce-assault-weapons-ban-and-its-not-just-rifles-purpose-is-to-dry-up-the-supply-of-these-weapons-over-time/

Attention Non-Learners: We had a ban on some "assault weapons," not so many as these, in the 1990s, and you all remember how peaceful that decade was, right? Banning specific brands of rifles and pistols means nobody is murdered, right?

Well...maybe on whatever planet youall were on. There were about two years when, I am not making this up, every weekend I spent in Washington, the Post ran another memorial essay about another teenager who'd been shot in the back by some other teenager. (These stories were all...one couldn't say "pure bunkum" because the incomplete facts were probably accurate so far as they went. They just airbrushed out the parts of these kids' stories the grieving relatives wouldn't want to read. Probably at least half of the kids were running drugs but all the Post would tell us was that they had been First Class Scouts or made the honor roll in grade six.) There were murders on Metro. There was one widely reported case where a Prozac-demented fifteen-year-old girl jumped out of her car, dragged a young woman out of another car that was also stuck in traffic, and stomped the young woman to death on the median strip. In the Maryland border town of Bladensburg there was a gang that specialized in "granny bashing" outside the retirement project. There were half a dozen school shootings, not in D.C. but reported in the Post, during a twelve-month period.

Banning specific firearms did for violence what banning specific cars did for traffic accidents, or what banning specific computers would do for online scams. It may have caused a few legitimate dealers to lose money on some of their stock. It did not noticeably prevent any crimes.

More Good News for Job Seekers

If you're looking for more than five hours a month, and are willing to work in or near Washington, the Washington Post is sponsoring a job fair on the 29th of January. Click here to see the short list of private corporate employers who will be mingling with upscale job seekers:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/jobs/Content?Content=/Career_Fairs/index.html

By "upscale job seekers" we mean ambitious people with specialized job skills--engineers, programmers, nurses, teachers, health care workers, and yes, some corporations are looking for managers too.

Web Designer Wanted: Name Your Price

Well, this site would like a web designer too, but we can't afford to pay one. Jim Babka's Downsize DC web site can. Here is his ad:

"Downsize DC is looking for a talented and enthusiastic individual, who understands web design best practices, to join our team.


The Web Designer will be responsible for designing and maintaining our websites plus handling other web projects. Must be very skilled with HTML/XHTML, graphic design tools, CSS, cross-browser compatibility issues, SEO, etc. Modest programming skills preferred.

The position is part-time. Most months, there is less than 5 hours work. However, as our team is building new projects now, there is more work to do over the next couple of months.

Are you a Web Designer with several years of experience in graphic design and web design?

PORTFOLIO OR SAMPLE OF WORK _REQUIRED_. Those who do not submit a portfolio of some kind will NOT be considered.

Preference given to candidates who state their desired hourly compensation when they apply.

Respond to HelpWanted@DownsizeDC.org

NOTE: Due to the expected volume of response, we cannot follow-up with everyone who responds. Thank you.

Jim Babka"

This ad came in the e-mail, but it's currently also showing at http://www.downsizedc.org/, a web site this web site officially likes and recommends.

SB 819: Will Tourist Train Kill Local Businesses?

Virginia Senate Bill 819 looks so innocent. All it says it will do is give some people the right--well, and part of the money--to operate a cute little choo-choo train for tourists in southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+SB819

People in the jurisdictions affected say that it will, "among other things, destroy what's left of the coal industry." Homeowners would have to get permission to plant or cut down a tree; supposedly the "planning" necessary to operate this train would require everything within sight of the train to fit into the image the planners want to market. Remember why "I Shouldn't Be Planning Scott County"?

Too bad this one wasn't planned as a private, for-profit train that might have connected with Washington and/or Harpers Ferry, run on an historic track, and invited--not tried to force--local property owners to cash in on the train by offering the sort of music, crafts, food, and history The Crooked Road is supposed to be marketing, for their own profit, in their own venues. If the planners of the tourist train hadn't become greedy for power they might have been able to make this a good profitable venture everyone could have liked.

All I know is that "public-private partnership" projects tend to be or become boondoggles, and attempts to "plan" other people's homes and lives for them are evil.

Attention all Tea Parties who've been e-mailing in opposition to this bill: State Senator Bill Carrico has tallied our opposition and plans not to support SB 819.

Should Banks Forgive Loans of Deceased Students?

When I was in college, students were told that, if we died, the banks would just absorb any money they'd lost on our educational loans, because common decency forbids people to harass grieving parents. According to a petitioner known as Angela Smith, this is no longer the case:

http://www.change.org/petitions/first-marblehead-corporation-forgive-the-student-loans-of-my-deceased-son?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=17020&alert_id=mRDDFMaqMQ_RaQEmxgrBZ

Ms. Smith reports that the bank is continuing to harass her about her late son's loans. Where has the common decency gone? Take it out of your own salaries, you greedhead bankers. Nobody in this world will ever see any return on the money you lent this young man's school. Deal with it.

Women in Combat!

Newsmax sent the story first:

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/US-Women-in-Combat/2013/01/23/id/472653

Within seconds of the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-to-remove-ban-on-women-in-combat/2013/01/23/6cba86f6-659e-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

I personally don't like it; I think it will make life harder for young women who are willing to serve but not to kill. But it looks as if I've been outvoted.

The women who wanted this to happen feel overlooked when, e.g., although a few female relatives have been keeping up my own family's Army tradition, I still think that "soldier" and "serviceman" are basically masculine nouns, that a woman soldier is a sort of honorary man. Back when Associated Content existed I got a very nice message from a retired servicewoman reminding me that today's generic soldier is "he or she." In theory, remembering "he or she" will make us all respect women more because they've risked and sacrificed just as much as men. In practice, although women always have risked and sacrificed--in non-combat military service, in civil service, as mothers, all of the above--I think the unfortunate trend is toward ingratitude toward all veterans, male or female, so I'm not sure what sacrificing more young Americans' mothers is going to help.

Arr...there's the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way, and this is now the Army way. The more you complain, the better you like it, riiight? Let's all suck it up, and remember to thank our soldiers and veterans, male and female.

HB 1768: Striking (Out) Environmental Courts by Popular Demand

The people for whom this story will be most "educational," in the words of the Tea Partier who sent it in, probably don't read printouts any better than they read web pages. They need help from Creative Tightwads. If anybody out there knows who they are, this web site offers two suggestions from which to choose:

(1) Tell the illegal dumpers that they can get actual money out of old tires, cars, refrigerators, etc., if they haul this junk to the right places and dispose of it legally. If they don't have a way to haul off their junk, help them connect with someone who does.

(2) If you know for sure that they're total jerks, not only illiterate but malicious, like the unspeakable something-or-other of a poacher who has been killing does out of season and killing my possums, wrapping the carcasses in plastic garbage bags, and pitching them into one of those scenic mountain streams from which Gate City and Kingsport get their drinking water, and if you can control your feelings about these alleged people enough not to do anything to them that our contract forbids me to describe here, which I can tell you is not easy...anyway, if they're that kind of neighbors, why help them make a dime? Raid their dumps and keep all the money. Even money probably prefers to be in your pockets rather than theirs.


Anyway, Virginia House Bill 1768 would, if enacted, have set up "environmental courts," an old Agenda 21 phrase, repugnant to many people in Delegate O'Quinn's district:
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1768

The bill was written to set up a procedure for addressing some specific illegal dumping issues. However, in Washington County, county supervisor Bill Gibson smelled a rat. His e-mail to Delegates O'Quinn and Kilgore is now circulating around Tea Party mailing lists. In Bill Gibson's words, "I know you both must be against Agenda 21 as the national and state party have in their platforms and this bill only helps it get a foothold in local govt. "How do you eat a elephant? one bite at a time"....this is how Agenda 21 is being implemented in swva."

Delegate O'Quinn's response is worth sharing:

"I can assure you that we did not receive the bill from any elitist environmentalists. It came from the Wise County Sheriff's office to address several illegal dump sites across their county which contain items such as tires, couches, cars, refrigerators, etcetera and those who continue to add to the ever present problem...That being said, we certainly are not trying to create some completely new courts system and we don't want to overburden the court system or cause them undue financial burden. Thus, we are going to strike the bill.

www.israeloquinn.com

www.facebook.com/israeloquinn "

Would any Facebook users care to "like" this Delegate?

HB 2223: Hope for the Commonwealth of Virginia

E-friend Catherine Turner went so far as to call Virginia House Bill 2223 the last hope for our Commonwealth. I'm not sure it's the last, but it is beautifully simple and long overdue. Thank you, Delegates Bell, Cline, Gilbert, Landes, and Lingamfelter.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2223

HB 129 Updated: Opening the Electricity Market

Virginia House Bill 129 will, if enacted, open the market in southwestern Virginia for people to buy utility from producers other than Appalachian Power, Dominion Power, or American Electric Power, with specific mention of producers who plan to use landfill gas.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB129S1

Before its "amendment" this one sounded as if any old body who owned a windmill or waterfall could start selling electricity. Now it sounds as if the usual suspects, big business hand in hand with big government, will be divvying up a former monopoly. Ah, well. Breaking up Bell's monopoly gave us lower phone rates, even if the service with many of them is still abysmal, and breaking up the AP/AEP/DP monopoly is likely to have good results too...even if the wording is meant to attract those who actually like Agenda 21.

This web site, of course, loathes Agenda 21 or any more recent proposals based on Agenda 21. This web site thinks the U.N. should never be allowed even to think about dictating domestic policies within the U.S. Even if the policies happen to be basically good ideas, like wheelchair access, the U.N. should be put back in its place and reproved for suggesting them. And an expert legal analysis might find that HB 129, as amended, now needs another legal tweak to expunge all Agenda 21 or "Future Earth" influences from its language.

This does not, however, mean that this web site objects either to allowing free market competition or to making some good use of landfill gas. Aren't we all tired of having the fires down at the landfill endlessly filling the air with smoke, and not actually heating anybody's house or doing anything useful? I am. Isn't it time we had some alternative to either that waste, or letting the landfill grow into a mountain? It is. Thank you, Delegate Kilgore.

HB 111: Tax Credit for Job Creation

If enacted, Virginia House Bill #111 will provide a state tax credit for small businesses that create new full-time jobs:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB111

We can thank Delegate Richard Bell for this one.

Fun Facts About Martin Luther King

Although no public access computer was available on Martin Luther King Day, which has now come and gone, Arlen Williams has belatedly posted an excellent list of fun facts about Dr. King's life and work and his commemoration--or desecration--in the President's inaugural speech:

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/01/22/martin-luther-king-quiz-10-questions/

Not exactly the usual right-wing "Bet you didn't know how polite he was to this or that 'Communist'" items. During his own lifetime Martin Luther King, Jr., was definitely perceived as being on the political left, but the left have gone so far overboard lately that he could, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, almost be reclaimed by the New Right.

How Do We Define Mental Illness?

While I've been the first on several web sites to mention a link between psychotropic "medications" and the pattern of violent insanity observed in the Newtown and Columbine murders (and other mass murders followed by suicide), Philip Hodges raises important concerns about the hazards of using an undefined label of "mental illness" to restrict the freedom of any individual...

http://politicaloutcast.com/2013/01/why-mental-illness-is-the-avenue-to-gun-confiscation/

When I say we need for anyone using Prozac, Paxil, or similar medications (see www.ssristories.com) to be closely supervised, that's a clearly defined recommendation. These drugs are known to cause violent insanity for only a minority of users, but we don't know which users, or how long an individual can safely use these antidepressants. Closely supervising all users is the only realistic way to find out whether there is any reliable way to predict which ones will become violent.

But antidepressants aren't the only drugs associated with violent insanity. Before the serotonin-boosting drugs became popular, violent insanity was often associated with street drugs. Moments of violent insanity (or, more often, moments of dizziness or loss of consciousness) are associated with Flomax, a non-hallucinogenic "relaxant" prescribed by urologists for physical problems. People with emotional issues may suffer lapses of judgment or surges of "energy" that convert ordinary angry moods into violent outbursts under the influence of relatively safe drugs, including beer. People planning violent acts--criminals like Timothy McVeigh, or soldiers like Ishmael Beah--may deliberately use stimulants to help them override inhibitions and kill non-combatants. Where can we draw the line?

Since I've been calling for closer supervision of those specifically at risk for violent behavior, I'll propose two guidelines for identifying the people it's worthwhile to try to supervise:

(1) People currently using medications that are known to alter brain function. If we're serious about saving lives, we need to recognize that, for this purpose, the distinction between violent psychotic patients and ordinary people on ordinary medications is not useful. We need to make sure we're talking about a specific, temporary condition rather than a permanent personality trait.

Most Americans have at some time used some drug that altered our brain function; local anesthetics aren't supposed to alter brain function, but here I stand to testify that just a slight overdose of Lidocaine made me unfit to drive for twelve hours. And my concern here is primarily with the people who seem obviously different from psychotic cases, like the murderer who demanded execution last week, who need to be permanently institutionalized. People like me, during those twelve hours after a dentist gave me two Lidocaine shots before replacing a tooth filling! We don't have "a history of mental illness" that needs to follow us through the rest of our lives, and probably most of us feel like going home to bed after taking an anesthetic or painkiller...but if we're allowed to drive ourselves home from the clinic, we're the ones most likely to kill you.

(2) People who have committed violent crimes and been found legally insane during a trial by jury.

We need to make sure that any attempt to keep the violently insane, and the potentially violent and/or potentially insane and/or stoned, from handling dangerous weapons--which include things like cars, hammers, pencils, and hard shoes, as well as guns and knives--does not allow people to be labelled mental patients, and supervised, merely because they have:

-- sought counselling for grief, depression, anxiety, phobias, teen angst, confusion, or traumatic stress, but not been medicated

-- had behavior problems in school

-- been described as "disturbed" or "confused" by people with reasons to wish to discredit them--political enemies, opponents in lawsuits, mental patients who resent their sanity, or whatever

-- done things others perceived as "crazy" in the sense of bold, daring, wacky, comedic, or innovative

-- used drugs that altered their brain function in the past, as most of us have.

In short: either restrictions on behavior should be part of a contract to which a patient agrees before receiving medications, or they should be found necessary by due process of law.

Another Side Effect of Swine Flu Vaccine

Before we're accused of alarmism, let's emphasize that this Yahoo/Reuters story is about a flu vaccine that was reportedly banned from the U.S. last year. This is not the vaccine you may have had, or let your children have, this winter.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/insight-evidence-grows-for-narcolepsy-link-to-gsk-swine-flu-shot

I don't know whether Kate Kelland remembers three more fun facts about swine flu:

1. In the 1970s, the swine flu vaccine used in the United States was linked to fast-growing malignant tumors that appeared at or near the site of the vaccine, metastasized, and caused several deaths from cancer.

2. In the 1970s, in my part of the world, the folklore that circulated was that there were two different viruses, swine flu and something much milder called "sore throat flu"...but if you had "sore throat flu" you were immunized to swine flu. Well, blessed be that myth, because my brother and I had "sore throat flu," were sick as puppies for about a week, but didn't have to have the dangerous swine flu vaccine. During the last two winters before this one, when swine flu resurged, I was exposed and had a much milder rerun of "sore throat flu" (spent half a day in bed), raising suspicions. I checked. Yes, it is the same virus. Those of us who had "sore throat flu" are those who are relatively resistant to swine flu.

3. If "sore throat flu" was swine flu, then the claims made by some pork-avoidant people, that only pork eaters have to worry about swine flu, are bunk. On the other hand, these people did observe a strong correlation (usually in small population samples) between frequent consumption of pork and severe cases of swine flu. This correlation still needs more formal research than it ever received.

Book Announcement: Poorcraft

At Making Light, Avram Grumer discusses good recent cartoon books..."graphic books," not reprints of newspaper comic strips. The one I want to read is Poorcraft.

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0979408059

If you click on the Kyle Baker links, you can watch animated versions of this author/cartoonist's books...on the weekend?

http://www.qualityjollity.com/Why_I_Hate_Saturn.html

A Look Behind the Virginia Association of Counties

Patricia Evans reports on the Virginia Association of Counties' baneful effects in Pittsylvania County, and more. Scroll down for another link to a Forbes article, and more information on land grabs and what's behind them:

"Bowman Dictates VACo's Standards, Ethics, Code of Conduct to Pittsylvania County Board

http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/news/pittsylvania_county/article_fce3c48a-61df-11e2-892b-0019bb30f31a.html#facebook-comments

Whose standards, ethics and code of conduct does Brenda Bowman want our Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors to follow? Legislative Committee Chair Brenda Bowman said she consulted with officials from the Virginia Association of Counties ( VACo ) on development of the standards. James Campbell, executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties, said some counties in the commonwealth adopt VACo's standards of conduct as part of their bylaws. They establish expectations of how board members relate to the governing body. As an uninvited guest, James Campbell was asked to leave, and escorted out of the Agenda 21/ Property Rights Legislative Briefing last week in Richmond. His organization, VACo has a long history of promoting United Nations Agenda 21 and property rights abuses. VACo fought against our Property Rights Amendment in 2012. This year their 2013 Legislative Agenda includes "targeted initiatives to facilitate the protection of 400,000 additional acres of land for conservational purposes, supports purchase of development rights and state funding of VA Land Conservation Foundation and VA Outdoor Foundation. VACo supports increased funding and additional grants of authority to promote regional initiatives and overall funding of VA's planning district commissions. All of which should be defunded for property rights abuses. This year, the National Association of Counties has launched a key initiative, "Smart Justice" policies and practices. http://www.naco.org/about/president/Pages/default.aspx This is ALL United Nations Agenda 21. And VACo wants a state tax increase, more taxpayer money to fund this unconstitutional agenda.

Brenda Bowmans recommendations can be found on NACo's website here: Counties under more scrutiny seek guidance on ethics policies

We don't need Virginia Association of Counties and the National Association of Counties setting our standards, conduct and code of ethics for Pittsylvania County or any other county in Virginia. Our supervisors should not sign Bowman's "Model of Excellence" from this corrupt organization.

We, the people of Pittsylvania County, will not tolerate imposed sanctions and fines on our members whose behavior does not comply to the dictates of Brenda Bowman and VACo. Brenda Bowmans code of ethics includes avoiding conflicts of interest. And speaking of conflicts of interest, Brenda Bowmans husband, Ken Bowman is Pittsylvania County's Economic Development Director, and also a member of VACo whose policies he promotes. Our county board of supervisors took an oath to the U.S. Constitution and the VA Constitution. Brenda Bowman needs to read them, and follow them, instead of following VACo and dictating their unconstitutional policies to the other members on the board.

Ken Bowman, Pittsylvania County’s economic development director, and Danville Economic Development Director Jeremy Stratton's Communist China visit aims to lure communist industries, jobs to Dan River Region

http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/news/pittsylvania_county/article_a844aa1e-61e1-11e2-a95b-0019bb30f31a.html

“They’re going to be a very good partner. With its relationship with other ( Communist ) Chinese businesses, GOK can encourage other ( Communist ) companies there to come to the Dan River Region. It’s important to make connections with investors and business leaders in ( Communist ) China, to know their companies’ needs. (Communist ) Chinese companies must establish a location in the U.S. so they have worldwide marketability with a “Made in America” (?) label, Bowman said.

Danville, Pittsylvania County and GOK jointly paid for the trip. Bowman declined to reveal the cost to taxpayers.

Chinese Communists Buying U.S. Land & Setting Up Shop.

http://www.independentsentinel.com/2012/05/chinese-communists-buying-u-s-land-setting-up-shop/

Chinese developments are being planned in the United States which are, they say, to invest in this country and provide jobs for our union workers instead of sending jobs to China. We are living in a global world and I understand that. What I don’t understand is why we have to do this with companies run by the Chinese communist party or closely connected to them? Chinese communists make very poor allies and they are not our friends. They hack our power grids and our secret service facilities while stealing our technology to say nothing of the games they play with the currency. They produce counterfeit goods. They constantly saber-rattle. Don’t even get me started on their human rights abuses.

The other thing I don’t like about Chinese companies is that they live off bribes and favors – they are communists after all.

Do we really want to do more business with them and even welcome them into our country? Is this the type of competition we want to set up for U.S. companies? Let’s make America business-friendly for residents and citizens instead!

What's China Buying In The U.S.? - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2011/09/15/whats-china-buying-in-the-u-s/

The Bottom Line

China has been investing in countries around the world for years. Now it’s got its sights set on the U.S., where some analysts say its investments could reach $2,000 billion by 2020. There remains an anti-China sentiment among Americans, who fear loss of jobs as well as a threat to our country’s security.

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson Virginia Tea Party Patriots www.virginiateapartypatriots.com Danville Patriots http://danvillepatriots.com/"

I Guess It Never Hurts to Ask...

In Oregon, 28-year-old Earl Martinez is literally begging for a kidney...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/23/oregon-man-begs-for-a-kidney-donor-on-the-side-of-the-road/

...and so far he's had two offers.

Well, as Martinez has explained, he's not even taking any further offers of kidneys at the moment. So those who are feeling charitable are hereby invited to do something easier with your feelings. Support this web site. If the "Support My Blog" button doesn't work, e-mail salolianigodagewi@yahoo.com for information about how to chip in money to support this web site and/or the Cat Sanctuary and/or Cornerstone Communications. Please indicate your preference between Paypal and U.S. postal money order.

Double-Shelled Egg Photos

As a service to humankind I'll spare the "Is this a yolk?" puns and just share the link to Liz Klimas's photo-enhanced story about the biggest chicken egg you ever saw:

http://www.th eblaze.com/ stories/2013/01/22/this-is-a-beast-of-a-chicken-egg-and-you-wont-believe-what-was-found-inside/

This web site officially loathes anything with a .pdf format, but, while agreeing with the Blaze reader 3-Blue, we'll share Trigus's link to this .pdf, which is only one page long...

http://w ww.utahsher iffs.org/USA-Home_files/2nd%20Amendment%20Letter_1.pdf

And, for those who insist on reading the serious news first, here are some links to the Big News Story of the day:

Suggest questions you'd like to ask Hillary Rodham Clinton about the Benghazi murders: http://www.thebla ze.com/stories/20 13/01/23/what-should-congress-ask-hill ary-clinton-today-about-benghazi/

Watch the retiring Secretary of State on the stand: http://w ww.theblaze.com/storie s/2013/01/23/watch-live-hillary-clinton-finally-testifies-o n-benghazi/

This web site will, however, make a serious attempt to catch up with six days of e-mail and discuss a few bills before the Virginia legislature during the rest of the day. Those of you whose eyes can tolerate video presentations are welcome to send your comments on Mrs. Clinton's testimony.

Did President Obama Commit Identity Fraud?

We all know that President Obama, like many security-conscious people including me, used a deceased relative's Social Security number as a "nine-digit pass code" on a utility account. Since utility companies don't need to know anybody's Social Security number there's nothing wrong with that, and it's not fraud--you can tell utility companies up front that what you're willing to let them use is some other set of nine digits that you'll remember. But an anonymous blogger at Minute Men News reports that our President has, in the past, used fraudulent Social Security numbers on tax returns and a draft card...

http://minutemennews.com/2013/01/petition2congress-investigate-barack-obamas-use-of-forged-ssn/

The Minute Men had better be sure this one's true. This story is too serious to publish if they can't prove their facts.

Phenology: Southerners Think This Is Cold

This web site is frequently read by people in the Northern States, Russia, Canada, and other places that experience serious cold weather. Possibly some of you are in need of a good laugh. If so, here is what in Virginia passes for a snow and freezing weather emergency:

Yes, when I left the library, sleet was beginning to fall. I caught a ride home with someone who thought we had time to stop at a fast-food place (for coffee) as well as the supermarket. Well, I had time to do those things and get out of the car before that sleet turned to big fat fluffy snowflakes. By the time I had walked up the unpaved road to the Cat Sanctuary, that road was covered in snow and ice. I really was concerned about my friend, driving on to her house. She made it safely home though and is back at work.

The snow didn't get more than six inches deep and wasn't blowing about, but Southern roads really are dangerous when there is any kind of snow, ice, or even standing water on them, because Southerners don't get much practice driving in snow and seldom bother about tire chains. Usually one sees abandoned cars where drivers either skidded out of the road or decided to pull over and walk before they skidded, but sometimes situations do manage to become uncomfortable. Later the newspapers reported that in Tennessee two school buses were stranded in the snow, and the children "had to" stay on the buses until they could be "rescued." Those poor, bored, restless kids.

The "Comfort Zone" brand heater from Quillin's Hardware was tested this week, and it performed very well. Along with my home computer and a candle (from Mountain Treasures) it kept the "warm room" so warm that I had to peel off my slippersocks.

The earth walls and floor of the cellar maintain something close to earth temperature all year--call it earth temperature with drafts--and usually the cats prefer the cellar to the house, but by the fourth day of rain they were reporting that the cellar was too wet for comfort. Grayzel likes being indoors. The others behave pretty well indoors, but make it clear that they'd rather be outdoors...except for Iris.

There are actually two distinct things going on with Iris. She's still fighting rhinotracheitis, and cold and damp make it harder. She also has a dominant personality. For social cats, this does not mean fighting--people resist believing how friendly and hospitable Iris can be, but she has positively ordered me to feed visiting cats. Instead it means making lots of little status displays, which include unmistakable attempts to control the human. For the human who is willing to work with this behavior it means that the cat can become a real friend and working partner. If you want to live with this kind of cat, my advice is to let it train you to obey harmless gestures before it starts destroying your clothes and shoes. Iris hears and is learning words; she's also working out commands she can give me. This is making it hard to assess her physical condition. I suspect her of forcing or faking coughs because she's using a cough as a command. She stops coughing when she gets into the warm room.

Fortunately, she's also learned that the sound of typing on the computer is her cue to take a nap, so I was able to get some work done.

Meanwhile, a damp heavy snow weighed down the treetops. People were praying that trees wouldn't break down power lines...and apparently, for most people, they didn't. At the Cat Sanctuary the lights blinked out a few times but never stayed off for more than a minute or two. There was a power outage in town. Some stores had to get rid of frozen food. I hope they found people who were willing to eat it before it went bad.

Overnight lows were around 20 degrees Fahrenheit every night. On Friday the daytime high was only in the low thirties--just at the freezing point--but things that were in the sun began to thaw during the day. I had some bottles of water and soda pop on the porch. They did not freeze over Thursday night; I brought them inside around sundown on Friday.

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (a federal holiday) daytime highs were around 40. The ground thawed to slush every day; snow stuck on, not because the ground was cold, but because the ground was saturated with water.

While walking around in the sun, or sitting in the warm room with Iris, I've been quite comfortable in just one layer of thick cotton clothes.

Virginia has seen weather that people further north would recognize as winter, but it doesn't happen every year. One winter overnight lows stayed in the single digits, highs in the teens and twenties, for several days. One winter, about thirty years ago, for just a few hours one night the temperature dived down to twenty degrees below zero (Fahrenheit)--many dead birds and small animals were found on the road the next morning.

But this weekend at the Cat Sanctuary the resident cardinals and visiting chickadees were chasing the insects that were flying around in the daytime...and even while the thermometer was still showing twenty degrees this morning, when I carried the kitten Ivy indoors she nonverbally said, "If you want to groom me or share a special food treat with me, get on with it--I don't want to sit around in this stuffy house all day!"

Oh, the holiday is over. I can go into town and check my e-mail. Must I put on clunky boots? No, it's not cold enough that I have to put on clunky boots. A coat, or a heavy shawl? No, the sun is shining, and if I walk very far in the sun I'll "burn up," which is the local euphemism for perspire, under a coat or shawl. Can I stand at least to wear a sweater? Well...for the first mile I can stand to wear a medium-weight sweater.

Then I get into town, and everyone is still carrying on about how cold it is. I walk into a store, peel off my sweater before it's soaked, and the storekeeper is practically hugging the space heater, which has been moved right up onto the counter, and wailing, "It's not so bad further back in the store, in the fitting room, but here up front it's cold!"

More snow is expected. If prolonged power outages occur I'll be unhappy too; I have a full woodbin and a bag of candles but, now that there are no longer geriatric neighbors who need to be shovelled out, when snow keeps me off the computer I get bored. But I am not going to try to tell readers sitting in the Ukraine that this is cold. This is why numbers are so useful. Overnight lows around 20, daytime highs around 40 degrees Fahrenheit; whether you feel that as warm, cold, or normal-for-the-time-of-year is up to you. I say it's normal for the time of year.

Phenology: Snow and Southerners

What we've actually seen, going into the fourth day now, is rain. Lots and lots of rain. Mostly a slow, steady drizzle that sometimes seems to be about to stop, but doesn't, really, because the cloud is still hugging the mountain so closely that little drops precipitate out here and there, mostly when cold air hits warm humans, so that even people who don't have colds have little raindrops dripping off the ends of our noses.

Personally, I think even snow would be preferable to any more of this rain, but most of my neighbors don't agree with me. The possibility of a hateful winter rain turning to snow causes knicker-twisting, runs on supermarkets, and cancellations of just about everything. People flock to the supermarket to stock up on the food they will need for the next month because there is a slight theoretical possibility that the supermarket might close too.

Maintaining this web site has not been as easy this winter as it was last winter. No more obscure, little-used computer center just seven miles away; it was closed for lack of use. No more blogging from the home of the Republicans who physically hosted this web site last winter; their student graduated and they no longer have Internet service at home. One of them has continued to sponsor this web site to a limited extent, and suggested, "Couldn't you work from the gun shop?" Of course not; the computer at the gun shop is almost constantly in use.

Gate City has a nice little cafe with WiFi, and the whole idea of having a laptop was to be able to spend Tuesdays in the cafe hosting a Community Blog, and the Yahoo problem seems to have been fixed...but I'm not taking the laptop out in this rain.

So I arranged to spend three afternoons a week in scenic Nickelsville, Virginia. This is a twelve-mile drive; I have to schedule a "call bus" trip out there and then wait for a relative to drive back.

The scenery along the Nickelsville Highway, one of those old state highways that's actually just a two-lane road, is beautiful. One of the more eye-catching features is the Copper Creek Bridge, which spans deep, steep banks between two long hills. Currently one of the two lanes on this bridge is being rebuilt, and vehicles are taking turns using the side of the bridge that's still usable.

As I packed up to leave the computer center yesterday the lady who opens and closes the building said, "If it starts to freeze or snow tomorrow, I'm going home. I have to get across that bridge before it's covered with snow."

During the next eighteen hours I thought very seriously about calling to cancel the bus. Nobody should have to drive across the Copper Creek Bridge, in its current condition, on ice or snow. I didn't want either the lady's or the bus driver's time to be wasted...but I'm glad the bus didn't show up. I hope nobody else hydroplanes down one of those long hills and into an oncoming vehicle, either.

Meanwhile, back here in Gate City, there's nothing on the ground but water, temperatures are nowhere even close to freezing, and if the Great and Terrible Snow does arrive as predicted it's supposed to start around sundown...but schools have been closed, and the computer center is full of children, because all the schools in the county have to be closed if any school is, and nobody wants a school bus to be on the Copper Creek Bridge even in rain actually.

Dang. Will I ever get into the Bill Reading Marathon? (Some of you are asking. The computer is giving me two distinct pictures of you readers. People who discover this site on Google are primarily looking for animal pictures, obscure book reviews, recipes, and miscellaneous chick lit. People who read regularly are primarily reading the political stuff.) I don't know, but hello, I am a Southerner, despite my late lamented husband being a Canadian and my very active mother having grown up in the North. The thought of snow has been uttered aloud. I'm supposed to go into a flutter, if not a flap, rush to the supermarket, then go home and sit by the fire. I look out the window at the dark sky--it's 1:15 p.m. and it looks as if it were 6 p.m.--and think that sitting by the fire sounds like a good idea.

Plus, that stream along the road that I described as looking murky by daylight, but like pearl at night? It is solid white water all the way, now, far over its banks, and the last time Grandma Bonnie Peters tried to call me I couldn't hear her above the roar of this little branch creek, which is now bigger than some things called rivers normally are.

During the first cold snap Iris, the calico kitten who has been fighting rhinotracheitis so hard she's forgotten to grow bigger than her siblings, decided she liked lying in front of the hot-air fan. She started coughing piteously whenever I saw her out on the porch, until she got close to the hot-air fan, when she stopped coughing and got busy arranging my hands and knees in the most convenient position for her to snooze on. Unfortunately the hot-air fan died early Tuesday morning. I rushed into town on Tuesday--in the rain, no laptop--and bought a ceramic heater from Quillin's Hardware instead, and I will say it's considerably more efficient than any space heater I've owned during the last fifteen years. For the first time in a long time, not only does the room heat up so that I want to use the thermostat feature, but the thermostat feature actually works without generating a power surge that endangers the computer. I am pleased. Now, for tonight's project, I plan to let Iris meet the ceramic heater; I think it will convince her to stop trying to cough and focus on growing up.

Famous Last Words, you say? Will Iris decides she likes a heater efficient enough to curl her fur? I'll report on this as soon as the computer center opens up again. My time's not up, and only one kid is waiting, but the librarian has just declared a Snow Emergency and started shutting down this building.

Steven Kozar's Amazing Watercolor Paintings

They could be mistaken for photos, but Steven Kozar's pictures are watercolors...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/17/these-amazingly-real-pictures-are-actually-watorcolors-and-theyre-painted-by-a-glenn-beck-fan/

Tea Parties: Rumors of Our Death Have Been...

Calling all Tea Parties: Rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated. If anybody out there used to belong to a Tea Party group that has disbanded, please read Lloyd Marcus's pep talk here:

http://www.lloydmarcus.com/?p=3361&cpage=1

Then visit Matt Kibbe's ambitious site, www.freedomconnector.com. There's no charge for using this social web site. You will be asked for your zip code. This will be used to help you find fiscal conservatives who live near you, in your town or city neighborhood if possible, so it will be possible to meet in real life if that's important to any of you. Browse around, post a few thoughts on recent news, read a few other people's comments on recent news, and connect with people who seem congenial. Presto, you are a Tea Party again.

In order to preserve our identity as a true grassroots movement organized mostly by amateurs, we have no way of screening out people who are not serious except watching what they say and do. It's possible that some readers may have joined Tea Parties organized by people who weren't serious, or weren't competent organizers, or weren't fully competent period. These organizations have a natural tendency to die early.

This web site represents one small, extremely loosely organized Tea Party that has so far connected only in cyberspace. The main group activity of the Conservative Civil Libertarians is reading this blog. There are no dues. There have been no meetings, so far, although if anyone wants to have a meeting we can have one. Individual activities can include anything that does not materially harm others, especially doing a job, operating a business, and practicing your religion; voting, rallying, bill reading, writing letters, and campaigning for candidates are also recommended, but not required.

Although the Freedom Connector page shows only two official alliances with other Tea Parties on that site, regular readers already know we have a few others. Lloyd Marcus is one of several writers we "met" at the Noisy Room web site, which links a couple dozen fiscal conservatives' blogs, web sites, and organizations. If you're looking for online chat, there's an active, chatty group organized around Bart DePalma's book, Never Allow a Crisis to Go to Waste. We've become informed about "Agenda 21" by Karen Bracken at www.americadontforget.com. In Virginia, other active Tea Parties that send us information include www.virginiateapartypatriots.com and www.danvillepatriots.com. The biggest (and therefore, sometimes, inevitably the most annoying) Tea Party e-magazine is www.theblaze.com, a daily sponsored by Glenn Beck and written by several of his e-friends. Todd Cefaratti's Tea Party News Network sends out e-mails headed "The Tea Party." One of many...but it was the one that connected us with all those other sources, and more.

There is no excuse, Gentle Readers. If you don't want to pay more and more taxes to fund more and more boondoggles, you are Taxed Enough Already and you might as well identify with one (or more) Tea Parties. If you really don't feel you fit into any of them, even the supremely low-pressure Conservative Civil Libertarians, you'll just have to organize your own.

Boneta Bill Supporters Threaten Farm Bureau Boycott

Patricia Evans sent this e-mail, parts of which were written by Mark Fitzgibbons and Donna Holt. Because we're all busy with the Bill Reading Marathon, and because these people have donated their good work to this site in the past, I've taken the liberty of posting this article, editing format only:

"The Virginia Farm Bureau is opposing HB1430 The Right To Farm Act amendment. ("The Boneta Bill") http://www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2013/hb1430/ Small farmers are leaving the Farm Bureau in response. We need farmers and those who support them on the phone calling their legislators and their local Farm Bureau representatives.The Virginia Farm Bureau email: http://vafarmbureau.org/AboutFarmBureau/ContactUs.aspx Phone Number, Main Office in Richmond: 804-290-1000

Boneta Bill Supporters Begin Boycott of Farm Bureau: Virginians Standing up for Property Rights

Paris, VA – Property rights activist, constitutional lawyer and an organizer of the August 2012 Pitchfork Protest in Warrenton, Virginia, Mark Fitzgibbons issued the following statement today:

“Small farmers are leaving Farm Bureau in response to its Virginia division’s opposition to H.B. 1430, the Boneta Bill, introduced and championed by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter of Woodbridge, Virginia.

“The Boneta Bill is named after Martha Boneta, the Paris, Virginia farmer who gained national attention in 2012 with the ‘Pitchfork Protest’ on her behalf. She was charged and threatened with fines up to $5,000 per violation by Fauquier County for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls without a permit, and selling her produce, homemade pies, farm crafts and wool products even though she had a business license. The bill amends Virginia’s Right to Farm Act (VRFA) by clarifying its protections of traditional farming commerce, expressly protecting constitutional rights on farm land, and providing remedies for violations of the VRFA.

“It is the height of political arrogance for Virginia Farm Bureau to oppose the bill for the reason that they did not ‘bless’ it before it was introduced. Virginia Farm Bureau wrote the VRFA that failed to protect the commerce of small farmers, which pays Farm Bureau’s insurance premiums, and failed to include remedies for violations. Farm Bureau’s legislative failures have abandoned Martha Boneta and all small farmers, leading to economic hardship for small family farms.

“This notion that special interests must control the introduction of legislation offends all Americans. But the hypocrisy of Farm Bureau’s opposing the constitutional, property and long-held commercial rights of small farmers ranks among the most politically -- and now, economically -- tone-deaf actions by any big business.

“Small farmers posting comments at Richmond Sunlight, Virginia Farm Bureau’s social media site, blogs, etc. have already stated their intention to leave Farm Bureau. Insurance companies may swoop in to pick up small farmers as new customers, and small farmers will look for new leadership for their legislative needs.

“75 percent of Virginians voted for the eminent domain amendment in November despite opposition from the real estate industry, and the Boneta Bill’s bipartisan popularity of H.B. 1430 may exceed even that. Farm Bureau has become another special interest beholden to big business and out of touch with small farmers, and constitutional and property rights of the little guy,” said Mr. Fitzgibbons.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Kevin McVicker at Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or kmcvicker@sbpublicaffairs.com .

More from Donna Holt, Virginia Campaign for Liberty:

You might be interested to know that Martha Moore is the vice president for governmental relations at Virginia Farm Bureau Federation and is also on the Board of Directors for "Virginia Forever". http://virginiaforever.info/about.htm "Virginia Forever" is a coalition of public and private environmentalist groups to include The Nature Conservancy. They launched the campaign to "garner increased public understanding, support, and funding for conservation". They are proponents of Agenda 21. The Nature Conservancy has acquired and is in control of more than 40,000 acres of protected land on the eastern shore. No human activity is allowed there. They work with local governments to create a hostile environment to put the squeeze on anyone they think they can to lock away more land. They only pretend to protect small farms.

Look at what they have been up to -

http://virginiaforever.info/latestnews.htm

Just a few:

(1)The Virginia Outdoors Foundation permanently protected 26,375 acres of open space through 127 conservation easements in 2012. VOF recorded easements in 53 localities, including about 120 miles of streams, 11,000 acres of U.S. Department of Agriculture-designated high quality farm soils, and 1,700 acres along state-designated scenic roads and rivers, among other conservation values. VOF now protects about 675,000 acres— more than 1,000 square miles—across 107 localities.

(2)250 Acres Along Roanoke River Put in Conservation Easement

(3)A dozen grants totaling $1.55 million have been awarded by the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation to protect 1,642 acres of farm and forestland, natural areas and historic tracts. The grants, which require a minimum 50 percent match, are going to the Shenandoah Battlefields Foundation, the Civil War Trust and to Sundance LLC, among others.

(4)Five miles of undisturbed forest, sand hills and waterfront in Isle of Wight County along the Blackwater River will be preserved by the state, protecting it from future development. Officials are still debating how to utilize the land but it has the potential for ecotourism activities and limited timbering.

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson Virginia Tea Party Patriots www.virginiateapartypatriots.com Danville Patriots http://danvillepatriots.com/ "

HB 82: Refunds for Excessive Zoning Taxes

Virginia House Bill 82 will, if enacted, offer refunds for those whose property has been overtaxed because of the kind of zoning ordinances this web site advocates repealing in toto...

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB82

We thank Delegate Orrock, whose heart seems to be in the right place, but we think this one ought to go much further.

Our Picks from Terry Kilgore's Bills

Some of our State Senators and Delegates use e-mail heavily. Some do not. Terry Kilgore has never yet sent me an e-mail; even at home, in his capacity as an attorney in private practice, he lets people e-mail documents to his secretary before meeting to discuss things in real life. However, I don't want e-friends who've forwarded e-mails from their legislators to think mine haven't been proposing good bills too.

I sneaked a peek at Delegate Kilgore's proposals last week...gave him five days to respond to my comments, which he hasn't done. Some of them deal with things I personally can't claim to understand well enough to evaluate the bills, like banking and coal mining. Then there's HB 129, which seems interesting...I don't understand exactly who could legally do what if this one becomes law, and I'd like to know more. Does this mean that e.g. I could hire an electrical engineer to install an unobtrusive little gadget to allow me to harness electrical energy from the waterfalls below the Cat Sanctuary, and sell that energy to other people?
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB129S1

HB 130 and 131provide tax breaks for our veterans. HB 130 exempts veterans' retirement benefits from Virginia state tax.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB130

HB 131 provides tax credits for disabled veterans, proportionate to their disabilities, and this web site says the sooner the better.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB131

HB 592 simplifies the background check process for Virginians purchasing firearms. Our sponsors will appreciate this one.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB592

HB 709 provides that, when damages are paid to the victim of a motor vehicle accident, they are due to the victim irrespective of insurance benefits. I think. I'd rather see "insurance benefits" simplified down to "the benefit of having set up a bank account to cover possible injuries or claims for damages," which I'd understand much better than the jargon of the existing insurance gambling racket. I think this is a bill I like.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB709

HB 1234 transfers authority from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority itself to the Governor of Virginia for appointing an individual outside V.E.D.P.A. as the "Authority's" C.E.O. By what oversight this wasn't done sooner...long overdue.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1234

HB 1254 restricts collection of unemployment funds by members of symphony orchestras during their off season. Reasonable.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1254

HB 1356 allows employees of local governments to participate in state insurance programs. A reasonable compromise as long as the law requires us to have state insurance programs.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1356

HB 1655 codifies the process for medical care providers to collect benefits from the insurance provider of the driver at fault in an accident when someone has been injured. Again, seems reasonable until such time as we can all shake the insurance gambling racket off our backs.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1655

HB 1656 allows the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission to be housed in some part of Virginia other than Richmond. I'm for it; at least it'll stop W.C.C. workers filing claims for damages resulting from their having to be in Richmond.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1656

HB 1676 reduces the time allowed for service of process, when a person is being sued, from twelve to six months from the initiation of the process. Seems reasonable. Last time I checked Maryland allowed only three months.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1676

HB 1769 authorizes the Health Department to participate in a medical insurance "benefit exchange." Not what I'd prefer, but what a substantial number of people wanted.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1769

HB 1785 adds a "public facility" in Wise, Virginia, to an existing list of "public facilities" authorized to sell things to the public for profit, pay sales tax, and receive financial benefits from that sales tax (without necessarily dipping into any other state revenue).

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1785

HB 1816 stiffens penalties for operating meth labs in places where a child or disabled person might be injured by the almost inevitable fire. Everybody likes this idea; if there's any debate it will be which bill sticks it to the fools who operate meth labs most efficiently.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB1816

HB 2160 limits to one year the time when people treated for work-related injuries are exempt from bills for medical care that they claim should be covered by workers' compensation. If claims for workers' compensation are settled within a year, this is excellent.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2160

HJ 94 allows individuals to offer "voluntary prayer" aloud in schools and public meetings. I like it.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HJ94

HJ 681 commends the Mountain States Health Alliance. This group oversees the Indian Path hospital in Kingsport, Tennessee, where we were all favorably impressed by the efficient, safety-conscious treatment one of Delegate Kilgore's first and most loyal fans received--no sitting in a room full of coughing, vomiting patients when she'd been taken in for a stroke. If the group has been able to make that basic, but still rare, improvement in all their hospitals, they richly deserve commendation.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HJ681

HB 73: Drug Tests for Public Benefits

Virginia House Bill 73 will, if enacted, require welfare beneficiaries to pass drug tests every six months:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB73H1

Last winter this web site stayed out of the "good Delegate, bad Delegate" type of thinking, but we do note that this excellent bill is co-sponsored by Delegates Rob Bell, Richard Bell, Cline, and Crockett-Stark...four names that we've often found attached to especially good bills.

HB 48: Right to Defend Your Home

HB 48 will, if enacted, solidify Virginians' right to use force to defend our homes against intruders:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB48S1

I don't think it goes nearly far enough. Why let a burglar "commit an overt act against the occupant" before you do something about him? Isn't being in your home, without an invitation, already "an overt act against" you? Actually, I think being on your land, beyond that clearly posted sign that says "No Trespassing," is "an overt act against" the lawful residents of private property and should relieve the property owners of any legal hassles about their defending themselves as they see fit.

I don't think our legislators should pay any attention to the idea that reviving the legal right to defend our land will lead to any wholesale slaughter of Jehovah's Witnesses...although, if it made Jehovah's Witnesses more careful about barging up to people's houses, that would be a good thing. There's nothing wrong with inserting into a good solid law about the right to defend property a clause about Jehovah's Witnesses, door-to-door salesmen, and similar nuisances having a right to move away from a house they have approached, as fast as they can, while loudly apologizing for having disturbed the homeowners.

But legislators need to exercise a little common sense. Giving people the legal right to kill pests does not make us want to kill anybody. I've been told I have the right to shoot the dogs my neighbors illegally allow to run around attacking other neighbors' chickens. Does that make me try to shoot those dogs? Want to shoot those dogs? If it wouldn't encourage them to stray, I'd actually like to pet those dogs! I have no ill will toward Jehovah's Witnesses, either, and even when those same neighbors' teenaged children are straying around making themselves a nuisance, I don't particularly want to have to haul a dead fullback out of my yard. I just want a good, strong, clear statement to everybody that if they're not invited to be on their neighbors' property, they should stay on the public road.