Something else that has been bothering me. "Will the left ever realize that taking resources from one and giving them to another does not work. It will not end poverty. Good intentions would not have evacuated those folks in New Orleans any faster than their own feet would have." Excellent point GeeGuy!

My take on Pork:
We are being asked to give up money that our state officials have been fighting for for years and send it to the south for rebuilding. Sounds like a good idea, but I want to know, if we give up the money for say, the Fort Peck Fish Hatchery, is it really going to make a difference in federal government spending? This is a huge deal for Montana, with long reaching economic impact. It is a project that is big for our state, but that federal money is just a drop in the bucket for the expected financing of the rebuilding. I think we need to look beyond this month, this year even, at what Our state needs and how this will effect us in the long run. We have been suffering from drought for years. Part of the problem has been water management, and RIGHT NOW the lower states on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers are demanding we let out out more water, to sustain their small percentage of barge shiping, at the cost of our farming and recreation industrys. Fort Peck is at an alarmingly low level, has been for years, yet we are required to release water for downstream industrys at the expense of our own. Let's give where we can, but killing our economic growth is not going to help anyone in the long run.
I do not expect everyone to agree with me, but I think this is something to consider.

No matter what his color
A man is still a man
As tensions mount I realize
This planet needs a plan
Now I 've got plenty to say, brothers
And I sure got plenty to do
So I don't want to waste time
Pointing my finger at you
copyright tapas records 1997

This song has been running through my mind for several days. Why does our society choose to blame others for everything that goes wrong?

We have a great tool being constructed on http://greaterfalls.com/election/ (hope that works)
where we can actually ask political candidates questions. Well, as long as they participate. Donna has already stepped up and discussed some issues on TSJ. Lets get some other candidates in here. Especially Mr. Gray!

The plot thickens... No not really

Well part of my last post has mysteriously vanished. Perhaps it is somewhere out in the stratosphere. It was vaugely connected ramblings, which I could probably recreate, but I am no longer in the mood.
GeeGuy has beat the Trib to the punch, and we have some excellent political controversy being conversed. My garage is being insulated, by the labor of our friends, who thought they were just coming over for a beer. Great for a rainy day.

wanderings

I have always wanted to build a big catapult and wreck things. A cannon would be fun too. I was in N.Y. (Albany, very cool. A lot of history.) and one of the many things we did was go see Henry Hudsons ship. It had small cannon. I tried to get them to take us sailing, but bribes didn't work. There was a small ? Navy gunship a little way up river, which was cool and provided a nice contrast. The New York State Museum took about two and a half hours, and was worth it.

Here comes another one! I am so glad I live in Montana.

A good Idea

I read that one of our illustrious politicians had a good idea. The US Corp of Engineers forces Montana to release specific amounts of water out of Fort Peck Reservoir to support barge traffic on the Mississippi river. Since at the present time there is really no need for more water in that area, he is asking if we can hold water in Peck to possibly raise the water level. Now the Corp will probably review this request and sometime next year tell us it was an excellent idea, and they wish it could have worked out. I think the State should just hold the water till they are forced to let it go, it would do us a lot of good.

Say What?

G. F. Tribune, page 2A, A.P. article by Adam Nossiter

Louisiana Attorney General charged nursing home owners with 34 counts of negligent homicide. "They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people." The State Attorney General said that.

The FBI warns people donating online to hurricane relief efforts to beware: agents have reviewed 2,100 sites claiming to be relief funds and found 60 percent were foreign and likely bogus. The FBI has at least eight criminal investigations already under way.

A spirited debate

Well, after spending the morning reading legal stuff regarding politics and public places I need to go wash dishes. I must do it the old fashioned way because my dishwasher died. It has been a spirited debate, and I have learned alot. Our forefathers never knew what their few simple words would become when they wrote them, but I don't believe they would have wanted anyone handcuffed and hauled away for speaking out. Conversely, they would most likely have wanted people to take responsibility for their own actions. So who is right and who is wrong in this debate? No one. Personal interpretation, opinions and beliefs are not wrong if you believe them. Thank you all for your input, I'm hittin the sink.

Time to Vote!

Candidate in hot water.....

Concerning S. Lewin for City Commissioner.
I thought I would post my thoughts here instead of entering into a debate with T.S.J

1. Mr. Lewin was "detained by police" at the Farmers Market. According to our illustrious newspaper, "he planted the signs in the lawn" which leads me to believe he created a booth like area that he should pay a fee for, (a vendor) as opposed to just wandering around (a customer).
2."Lewin said the woman told him that market rules did not allow politicians there." He did not agree, as is his right, however when city police told him the same thing, Lewin chose not to leave again, so "they handcuffed me and took me out of the Farmers Market, which is kind of embarrassing for a City Commission candidate." Yes, it may have been embarrassing, but it was his choice. He could have left, talked to his lawyer, whatever, without being publicly "embarrassed".

Free speech is important. So is standing up for personal freedoms. So is equality.
In two separate instances Mr. Lewin has been asked to leave areas where everyone else has paid a fee to advertise or sell products. If he wants to campaign (advertise himself) at these events he should follow the same rules as everyone else. I seem to hold the unpopular opionion that politicians should follow the same rules as everyone else.

I read in the paper this morning that to MDT is going to stop putting bright green stickers on signs that Do Not Comply and instead they are going to call or write the sign owners and try to help fix the problems. Wow, the State is going to stop arbitrarily pissing off its citizen and help them! If they had done this from the beginning they would not have stickered the Welcome to Great Falls sign. (This makes me laugh, they helped pay for it!) I see signs everyday that are in violation of code and I honestly believe most people are unaware of their transgressions. We have State/Federal guidelines for signs close to the highway that make no allowance for Private Property, county codes that you can't find, a city code that is unpopular, unclear, discriminatory (based on content) and open to interpretation of city officials. It is tough for someone unfamiliar with the permit process to get the information they need, and have it be the right information.
Usually your best bet is to hire a sign company, they charge you but they also take responsibility for doing everything correctly.

this is a test

these are good

www.post-gazette.com/pg/05247/564859.stm
www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/04/opinion/edrice.php

Heres a quandry for you.

My older sister works for the BLM and is a Coast Guard certified boat operator. The BLM has requested boat operators to go to N.O. My sister is considering doing this as she could make a lot of money and help alot of people. However, last year about this time she had some very serious health problems, which I believe make it more dangerous for her to be in this polluted environment. (Our mother is concerned about people shooting at her, but I say give her a gun and let her shoot back) My sisters decision is pending a doctors opinion.
Now, money is nice, and helping people is great, but I don't feel she should feel obligated to go when it could put her in danger. She asked for my opinion, and as usual we discussed it at great length. If she had no health problems I think I could be quite supportive, but I almost lost her once. I don't want her to go, but I feel a bit guilty because I'm sure she could do alot of good. I am hoping that her doctor will tell her NO!

Well, yesterday when I picked the boy up from school there was a sherriff crusin' along and man those people were well behaved! I now truly believe that they are inconsiderate $%#@*^ instead of just morons because they stoped doing illegal things when the cops showed up! I think they should deputize the crossing guards.

Natural disasters

My son and I were discussing the hurricane, and why some of those people might want to move to Montana. We decided despite the cold winters, hot summers, constant wind etc. Montana is really a pretty safe place to live. About the worst we could come up with was wildfires, and despite living here for almost 33 years I have only been in danger from them once. (I was about 9 at the time and my parents didn't seem to think we were really in that much danger.) Where else in the U.S could people possible be safer?

naked PETA chick update

The lady(?) who sat chained and naked downtown wrote a letter to the editor where she entreated us to attend only Animal Free circuses. How do you tell kids you will take them to the circus, but it will only have humans in it? Does she mean the mall the day before Christmas?!

Why I am here (not in the Grand Design, just the blog)

About a month ago I was googling sign code stuff (%#@) and ran across ecityblog and his old posts. They intrigued me, so I searched gt falls mt blogs and there you all were. I have read many archives, gone on meandering blog-spot surfing safaris across the country, forgot places I wanted to go back to, and generally wasted a lot of time when I could have been washing dishes or cleaning crayon off the walls. However, I have enjoyed it. I decided to start a blog on the spur of the moment, just to see what became of it. It is kinda fun to vent about things and discuss issues with people you don't really know. I have been relatively unemployed for about two years and truly miss the interaction with people that my job afforded me. I don't miss the boss, trying to get the kids where they needed to go, missing lunch because other people didn't do their jobs, etc. But I miss seeing all the people.

On Katrina, donating and other comments

I read with great dismay yesterday that they cannot find Fats Domino in N.O. But what is truly tragic is there are thousands more whose names I have never heard that are missing.

I saw on another blog spot that there are people trying to make this an issue of race. Come on, these people are not black, white, hispanic, french, creole, rich or poor. They are AMERICANS. They are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, catholic, protestant, baptist, democrat, republican, green party, Scared, Displaced, Homeless, alone in a sea of human misery. They voted for Reagan, Carter, Clinton, Bush, saved or destroyed wetlands, ran for cover when the rains came. They made mortage payments on homes they will never see again. They have forever lost Grandma Dollys wedding album. They have no shoes. Their son will not start kindergarten this week, or maybe next. This is not politics.

They have violated my peppers

At the grocery store I spy a bin of large shiny green peppers off in the distance. What a wonderful addition to my meatloaf, I think. I approach the peppers and reach out, my hand makes contact- NASTY! They are covered with what seems to be a vaseline-like product! This is going to far! I like pretty food, but I can handle the way a pepper looks straight out of the garden. Now I have to decide, is it worth cleaning this stuff off, when I will remember this alien movie-like goo as I am eating my meatloaf, or should I scrap the pepper idea and go with extra mushrooms?

Pencils

I don't know where they came from or where they go, but the little pencils next to my comments seem to have some kind of attention problem. One minute there they are, and next minute - gone. Maybe they skip over to some one else's site for a beer?