BNSF VS PIPELINE

It seems to me to be a double standard where the president is dragging his political feet on the Canadian application for a pipeline from the shale oil fields, while his constituents, if in fact there are any, scream daily  about oil trains transiting Spokane. Duh, this seems quite simple. Build the freakin' pipeline and reduce oil trains.

The price of gasoline has precipitously dropped in the last month or two. Supply and demand rules. Putting a plug in the system at the well heads is counter-productive to say the least. Unfortunately, if another serious accident occurs, the president will ignore his role in making oil transportation safe and blame it on everyone else, which come to think about it, is his MO.

It would serve us right if Canada went ahead with plans to build a pipeline to the British Columbia coast. Their own version of the Sierra Club seems to hear the wake-up call and is protesting this plan. If in fact they do build, all of their oil will ship to China, at our expense.

Another possibility is building a refinery in Calgary to separate components such as diesel, gasoline, propane, etc. and shipping the finished product.

Bottom line, stupidity should not be the rule. Build that pipeline!

GHOSTS, GOBLINS AND POLITICIANS

As I waded through this morning's S/R I reflected upon the similarities between nasty lies, half truths and outright statistics.

The juvenile behavior of most of the candidates is shameful, and those that vote for the worst offenders are equally shamed. There was in the true test of a good story, scandalous "If it bleeds it leads," type stories, none of which were either entertaining, informative or objective.

The respected Boise political writer, Betsy Russell, normally objective, leaped out of her image to actively campaign against Ybarra in the Superintendent of Education race. Ybarra is a bit of a loose cannon with her innocence showing. Wow! What a contrast to the viperous candidates in other races.

Betsy, let us think for ourselves. Go back to what you do best. Objective reporting and quit the campaign of her rival.

This next four days will see a week-end of frivolity in costume, followed by a tense two days of shouting insults lies and statistics at us besieged readers. Personally, I'll take the witches over all of the candidates combined.

Not to forget, the Captain's Wheel in Bayview, is reviving a long tradition of Halloween parties, Saturday night. Dress as a Ghoul, of come as you are. It's Party time. Live music, too.

I'M BACK

I lost the internet the 21st. I had Time Warner trouble shoot the system and they said it wasn't them and suggested I call Microsoft and gabe me a number that actually got a person. After explaining that immediately after losing my ability to bet on lin, I recieved two calls about fout days apart, offering to fix my computer. (In broken English)

The Microsoft confirmed what I had already suspected. I was scammed. They insert a virus then for $200 they will send someone out to fix it. Microsoft wanted $99.00 ro do the same, but at least they weren't a part of the attempt at holding my computer for ransom.

I considered the second offer, but not the first. I am skeptical of coincidents.

Finally, I went back to the control panel and deleted all programs that were downloaded October 21. Bingo. I'm up again creating chaos and chagrin.

I figured the public could do without my blog for a while, but I had to be able to access the election returns. I'm back in congtrol again. Oh happy day!

VIRUS ANYONE?

I'm in the middle of an interesting experience. I decided to cancel McAfee and go back to AVG Free. I carefully loaded and activated AVG two days before removing all traces (I think) of McAfee.

All the sudden I couldn't get on line nor pull up files. They just wouldn't open. Then I got several pop ups telling me I had a virus, and coincidentally two phone calls from a non-native person inviting me to have them help me with my computer.

Then a window opened saying that they were Microsoft and asked me to call 888-320-0824 for help. At this point I'm afraid to trust anyone. I'm surprised that I was able to get through to write thid post. If anyone out there has suggestions, opinions, etc please call me a t 208-683-9197. Is it possible that McAfee left a present when they were rejected?

Oh and I ran a complete scan right after I activated AVG.

BAH HUMBUG!

I am going to retire from the comment section of Huckleberries until after the election. From the left, I get snarky exaggerated and deliberate crap. They hate me because of my Republican connection. Some have even told outright lies about me which astounded me since I don't think I will influence them or they, me.

On the other hand, the Rally Right Wackos hate me because they truly believe that I am an ultra liberal which goes to show that preaching only to the choir limits the ability to learn.

So here I have the mouthy lefties and thank god the whackos that do not find me a danger to them, ergo they stay quiet. I'm right in the middle which tends to make one a fine target.

Most of the gibberish that shows up in comments this and other election seasons is just that. Faintly disguised anger rules their world. About one out of every 500 or so comments is actually objective. I see no reason to provide these types with free entertainment, since to many of the,m I have no knowledge about anything worth while anyway.

As for my votes this fall I think I would surprise both extremes with my choices.

MYSTIC FARMS WILDLIFE RESCUE

 

 

 

 

471 Wagon Bridge Lane Sagle, ID 83860

www.facebook.com/mysticfarmwidliferescue www.mystic-farm.com 208 241-7081

Each year, Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue continues to advance our mission to “rescue, rehab, and release back into the wild” our precious natural resource, the wildlife of Idaho. Through our non-profit, we have helped numerous orphaned and/or injured ungulates receive that second chance to grow and thrive. We are supported by a very diverse group of caring individuals and businesses throughout our community. Your donation in support of our precious wildlife would be so greatly appreciated.

Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue, Inc. is located in Sagle, Idaho. Though we are fully licensed through the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, we receive no state or federal funding. We operate 100% on donations and volunteers. There is no paid staff at Mystic Farm.

This year the board has decided to not have our usual banquet/auction. Rather, we are taking a different approach and conducting our "First Annual Mystic Farm 'Grow More Spots' Community Raffle and Auction." Part will be conducted via community ticket sales and part conducted as an event at Laughing Dog Brewery on Saturday, January 17^th, 2015. We strive to include local businesses and artisans as our primary contributors or sponsors of our event.

Our goal at Mystic Farm is to continue to make a difference by saving Idaho wildlife – one orphan at a time! Your contribution to our fundraising raffle will help us to do just that.

We thank you for your consideration to generously support Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue – and the orphaned and injured wildlife thank you!

Sincerely,

Staff and volunteers

Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue, Inc.

Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue, Inc. is a non-profit 501 (c) 3. All cash donations are tax deductible. EIN: 26-1657046

 

Mystic Farm ‘Grow More Spots’ Community Raffle & Auction 2014

Drawing/Event January 17^th, 2015 at Laughing Dog Brewery. Tickets: $10.00 each

1. Mossberg “Just in Case” 12 ga. Shotgun *
2. Lake Pend Oreille Cruises private charter for up to 36 people
3. Utopia Massage: massage a month
4. Lake Pend Oreille Charters ½ day fishing charter
5. Kirk Miller Photography stretched canvas
6. Sandpoint Furniture framed art
7. Chris Novak handcrafted folding library chair
8. Wild West Log Furniture handmade elk hide purse
9. Northland Firewood log garden bench
10. S’Hair gift basket
11. Northern Air scenic air flight for two
12. Panhandler pie a month
13. Reno’s metal bear clock
14. Buck knife
15. Creative Concrete fawn lawn statue
16. South Hill Lockers one deer cut & wrap
17. Lake Pend Oreille Cruises dessert/ eagle watching lake cruise (2)
18. Lake Pend Oreille Cruises history or Hope Island cruise (2)
19. Pierce Auto oil change
20. Reno’s metal art

...and so many more items for door prizes and auction!

*Firearm is not transferrable (except in the event of a parent’s minor child possessing winning ticket). Must be able to pass all federal, state and local laws to acquire firearm.

**Any unclaimed prizes after 30 days will be returned to Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue for use in future events.

***Must not be present at the January 17^th, 2015 event to win raffle prizes…but you know you want to be THERE.

WHEN PANDEMIC STRIKES

It has for a very long time been a theory that when epidemics get out of control Heath care nurses and doctors will flee to protect their own families. When/if that happens, then staying at home with no outside contacts will be the only way it will end, just as Bubonic Plague did.

Recently, nurses from the Texas hospital threatened to walk out. It wasn't by accident that both patients were transferred to another hospital in the east.  It this thing gets out of control that most likely will happen all over.

Our government, including the CDC is fiddling while our future burns, as they have done on a wealth of other issues. Obama's refusal to Quarantine flights and passengers from the affected African countries is just political correctness gone berserk. The idea of prohibiting black nations the right to travel to our country is more important to the liberal camp than saving American lives.

It must be noted, that bringing in dogs from other nations without a certificate of vacination creates an immediate quarintine, suggesting that saving dogs from infection is more important than humans.

As in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, when events overtake policy, it will be too late. A pandemic of this magnitude will send our civilization back 100 years. Just think how long grocery stores will stand in there while sick people enter their stores. Picture mass desertions from those public and retail places. Food distribution and even raising the crops and food animals will cease. Ebola kills 70% of the infected. Starvation kills 100%.

I remember adults running in the streets panicked at the sight of a weather balloon during WW11, thinking they were Japanese bombs carried by the wind as one submarine attack on the Oregon coast had actually occurred. Panic over imagined danger is hugely less than a known harbinger of death such as Bubonic Plague and Ebola. That Ebola currently doesn't spread by air does not mean it won't morph into different ways in the future. Then check out the two infected nurses who by all accounts did everything right and still caught Ebola. It may already be airborne in it's most severe stages, which are when the patient is in the hospital.

Our laggard president doesn't have to kill off thousands of Americans to prove he is the worst president in our history. We already knew that. We must overwhelmingly insist he take the proper action and quarantine the areas where the disease is already out of control.

BLACK DEATH & EBOLA

*Disclaimer: I am not a medically trained person. Having said that I am a student of history and especiallyof the old quote that "history tends to repeat itself."

Bubonic Plague was often used synonymously for Plague, but it refers specifically to an infection that enters through the skin and travels through the lymphatics. (Wiikopedia)

The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name: the “Black Death.” The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population. Some estimates were at least 75million. (Wikopedia)

Why do I bring up the subject of Black Death? Count the ways that it parallels Ebola. Spreads through the skin. Virulent spreading.

The major difference in the spread was in the 14th century, fleas from rodents which prolifically  existed back then.

But the huge difference between the Black Plague and Ebola is the methods of transportation then and now. In the middle ages, people traveled by ship, by animals, (horses, mules, etc) and mostly on foot.

Flash to now, travel is by air, by buses, cars and trains. It doesn't take a great imagination to see how much faster this type of disease  can and will spread if emergency measures are not immediately effected. an infected person not yet showing symptoms will board planes that girdle the earth. This time if it gets away, it won't just be one continent.

Instead of the health authorities leading this issue, Homeland Security should right damn now, limit travel. With a three week germination, checking temperatures at airports is a political solution, not a practical one. 

With just three weeks, or about the same as the disease, are the mid-term elections. this suggests that throwing the public into panic would be a bad campaign strategy. So what I see is a band aid where a tourniquet is needed. Already, Texas, Cleveland and CDC, are involved. Three destinations very far apart.

Air travel, except military flights should be terminated right now from Sub-Saharan Africa. We must be aware that panicked people in these regions will take extraordinary measures to escape what they may already by carrying. Travelers that have come from these areas should be detained wherever their connection flight originates.

If we do all of these things it still might be too late, but at the very least the government needs more than ever, to govern.  Dragging feet at this time will assure panic at the polls, that is if people go to them at all.Avoidance of places where many people meet may need to take a three week vacation.Sports venues with thousands stuffed together may need to resort to Television rather than attendance.

2014 ELECTIION SEASON

Perhaps the only person outside of the candidates themselves that enjoy this time of year, three weeks before the midterm elections would have to be Dave Oliveria of the Spokesman-Review Huckleberries on line.

As the moderator of a popular blog, the extra activity is like honey to a bee. For me, it is a decision making time. Do I vote for the candidates that my opposition in the precinct committeeman's party represents, thence rewarding the smear tactics by an ultra-conservative, aka Wacko? The one whose wife called a friend of mine and I assume others as well, to inform them that I was the town drunk and an ultra liberal. Well since 1964, when I voted for Barry Goldwater, I have voted straight ticket in national elections.

As far as the town drunk, one wag said to me, "you aren't even in the top 100, Herb." Well no I'm not. Many years ago I indeed was a party animal. Not so in recent times. Three beers when I choose to visit one of the local watering holes is my limit. I go because I live alone and want conversation with others from time to time. After discovering that I was defeated by a church congregation, I was stunned. Either it was a church full of extremists or my opponent lied to them as they did to others. I chose the bar vs. an organization that preaches hate and distorts truth.

Currently, I'm glad that I didn't win and have to support a bunch of,"return to the gold standard, repeal the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution which granted the direct election of U.S.Senators."

FYI no country anywhere in the world is on the gold standard any more and haven't been for a very long time. Virtually ll international trade would not survive the computer era where money changes hands with an electronic click.

As far as the 17th amendment, it is obvious to me that the far right trusts their control of the state legislature more than the people of Idaho.

While I will still vote GOP in the national offices, I probably won't in all local elections. You see, sometimes where a entrenched candidate that doesn't represent your point of view holds office and controls the primary as an incumbent, it is better to vote Democrat and defer the battle to the next election cycle where your own parties candidate is no longer an incumbent.

These decisions will keep me in the voter's booth much longer than the past, where choices will be decided at the last minute.I invite those alternative candidates that will run in the 2nd district to give me a call with the prupose of discussing ideas, not personalities.

We have become a state controlled by Libertarians and Constitutionalists that act like there are smoking Colorado and Washington  substances. Those that preach only to the Choir, and whose feet seldom touch the ground of reality have sonveeted us not to the most conservative state in the union, because that prostitutes the meaning of conservative. What we now have is a state that is out of step with the electorate and an electorate that doesn't give a damn.

INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

My history of money managing is not a good one. My first mistake was becoming a salesman what with the ups and downs inherent with that occupation.

My first serious venture was when I was in the Mortgage lending business. Back when it had rules and quantifying standards. In 1986, during the refinancing boom, I sold my stock that I had paid $500.00 for, in  1964, in1986 for $30,000. Not bad, right? then I cashed in the $15,000 I had accrued in my 401k at Seafirst Bank.

Bank of America had bought out Seafirst and crowded out the trained loan officers of which I was one. Easy street, right? In everyone's life there is a turning point. A place where you make decisions tha affect the rest of your life.

My friend and I decided to form our own mortgage brokerage. Signing a three year lease on a fancy office, I had it made. Uh-oh, the Spring of 1987, was a financial disaster. Later I learned that it was a full blown recession, which followed  the recovery of 1984-86.

Disaster struck and I was once again broke. I moved to North Idaho in the summer of 1989, a failure in the money game. Flashing to the present, I once again screwed up.

What with Washington and Colorado legalizing pot, weed, Ganj, I should have immediately bought stock in KFC.I didn't. With pot smokers everywhere on Marijuana I didn't realize the massive food trips many would experience. KFC stockholders  are winning big, and here I sit, broke once again. I guess I just wasn't cut out to be an investor.

BAYVIEW IS BACK

I'm about to divulge one of the inland northwest's best kept secrets. Living and recreating in Bayview is unparalleled, with the lake's only sheltered bay, mountains and quiet life.

This wasn't always true. Bayview was previously noted for sailboats and fishing. Seasonal boat slips were full every summer. While some fished for trophy Trout, others trolled dead slow, a give away that they were after smaller but tastier Kokanee, locally known as Blueback.

Two separate events slammed into the quaint village of Bayview. First, several marina owners wanted out. It was time to retire. Then along came Bob Holland, a developer on steroids. He promptly gobbled up Bayview Marina, Boileau's Resort and Vista Bay.

The resulting Great Recession killed that off, except he left a legacy of rebuilt and improved marinas before he crashed.The business's were in the tank. The recession killed off construction which many local residents toiled in. The only general store in eight miles, Bayview Mercantile closed it's doors.

But about ten years ago, with Kokanee against the wall with the possibility of extinction, Idaho Fish &  Game shut down the fishery and put a bounty on Rainbow Trout and Mackinaw sometimes known as Lake Trout. Ten years went by. Millions of Kokanee now swarm the lake as Idaho Fish & Game opened up what had been closed. A fifteen fish limit now applies.

Regardless of the business failures, Fishing terminated and the recession fading away, Bayview is back. New owners of the Bayview Mercantile, revitalized marinas, and fish on! Is the wonderful sound of today. The fish are getting a free pass as the best fishing of the year sees very few harvested. The Patio is flourishing since new operators arrived.

Bayview is quiet now as the Summer people scatter to their homes elsewhere and we permanent residents revel in the peace and tranquility of the off season. Today the loudest sound that can be heard is the fish swimming by. Many boat slips are still available, at least until the word gets out.

USS ZUMWALT

 
Check out this great article about the new destroyer that was first tested as a model in Bayview"

Meet the Zumwalt

The ship is plainly visible from Front Street, across the Route 1 bridge in downtown Bath. Nothing like this angular, almost hulking giant has ever been seen here, even after well over a century of...
View the complete article at http://www.defensenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201409280345/DEFREG02/309280017