So What is a Violation?

I've been putting in some good hours these days... trying to respond to a series of violations my facility received from RCRA. This last year, we changed computer systems on-site and this messed up every compliance program we ever had. As a result, we got alot more violations than we have since the facility opened about 15 years ago.

While I feel somewhat responsible for the violations, I know there is not much I could have done differently to prevent them. Staff was cut, so there was more work to do with less people. Something had to give. The new computer system did not do all the same record-keeping as the old one and without staff or influence over the corporate programmers that control what the new system does, something else had to give. This went on all year with me and my staff complaining up the chain of command how this year was not going to be pretty for violations. And alas, when we got the hefty violation document, they didn't even flinch. Just pay it I think they said. Golly. I'm still struck by that.

So, what do I do? I go through the violations line by line, word by word, picture by picture and try to pick it apart where I can and put a credible defense on the areas I think we are right and they are wrong. There were not alot of those types of violations this year, but there were enough that I think I can justify my existence once again. Maybe knock about 50k off the total fine. That would be nice.

The last few years, I've taken pride in the reduction in number of counts and the corresponding reduction in the dollar figure associated. That is what I do best. I put systems in place and train people and hold them accountable to do their job correctly so we are always operating in compliance with the rules, regulations and permits we possess. That is not always easy, especially with the new hires that have no experience in this industry and don't have to spend time in front of an EPA inspector explaining why something may not be labeled the way they expect or why a document does not appear to them to be filled out correctly as the regulations require. That is always a challenge, but it gets better as those new personnel get experience and realize how much that tiny aspect of their task they are doing on that particular day affects the overall compliance of the facility as a whole.

Well. For the last 2 weeks, I've been acting half like an attorney and half like an engineer trying to explain in a narrative fashion why a particular count is not correct and we are right and they are wrong. Or the opposite, explaining what our corrective actions were on one where they were right and begging forgiveness and groveling in the best narrative form I can.

I think next year will be better, but we have some new permits that the new agency is just now taking a hard look at us for compliance with air rules. We have problems there, and the fines are generally bigger, but I think we've got a better handle around them.

Virginian's

This is an old joke - but I love it anyway. Courtesy of my favorite blog (powerlineblog.com).

When Osama bin Laden died, he was met at the Pearly Gates by George Washington, who slapped him across the face and yelled, "How dare you try to destroy the nation I helped conceive!"

Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, "You wanted to end our liberties but you failed."

James Madison followed, kicked him in the groin and said, "This is why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!"

Thomas Jefferson was next, beat Osama with a long cane and snarled, "It was evil men like you who inspired me to write the Declaration of Independence."

The beatings and thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe and 66 other early Americans unleashed their anger on the terrorist leader.

As Osama lay bleeding and in pain, an Angel appeared. Bin Laden wept and said, "This is not what you promised me."

The Angel replied, "I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you in Heaven. What did you think I said?"

RCRA/TSCA Modification

For those of you that don't know... I do this for a hobby but have to work regularly to keep food on the table and support hobbies such at this.

So.... I've been busy all week working on a RCRA/TSCA permit modification for a landfill here in Utah. Well... suffice to say... any permit modification is not easy. This has been a particularly nasty one. Hopefully, we can get approval in another 60 days. I am near the end of the year I predicted to obtain this modification. It may be difficult for some to understand, but environmental permits sometimes take multiple years to obtain and are never secure once issues.

We shall see during the public comment period starting Tuesday.

Seventy-Two Virginians Waiting

This is an old joke - courtesy of Powerlineblog - one of my favorite blogs.

When Osama bin Laden died, he was met at the Pearly Gates by George Washington, who slapped him across the face and yelled, "How dare you try to destroy the nation I helped conceive!"

Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, "You wanted to end our liberties but you failed."

James Madison followed, kicked him in the groin and said, "This is why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!"

Thomas Jefferson was next, beat Osama with a long cane and snarled, "It was evil men like you who inspired me to write the Declaration of Independence."

The beatings and thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe and 66 other early Americans unleashed their anger on the terrorist leader.

As Osama lay bleeding and in pain, an Angel appeared. Bin Laden wept and said, "This is not what you promised me."

The Angel replied, "I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you in Heaven. What did you think I said?"

Death of the Spouse of an Apostle

Wife of Elder Nelson Passes AwayFeb. 13, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Dantzel White Nelson, wife of Elder Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Saturday at her home. She was 78.

The LDS Church announced the death in a release late Saturday. The cause was not immediately known. Mrs. Nelson would have turned 79 on Thursday.

A member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 20 years, Dantzel Nelson and her husband had 10 children, 54 grandchildren and 14-great grandchildren.

Funeral services were pending.

Russell Nelson has been an apostle with the LDS Church since 1984.

For those of you that live outside Utah, this is big news in the State and the top story on every newscast. This is an announcement of the death of the spouse of one of the 12 apostles of the LDS church. That is one of the top 12 positions in the church that are in line to replace the Prophet Gordon Hinkley.

Now, I'm not a prude or insensitive to someone's death, but why is this news? I'm trying to rack my brain for all the references to apostles spouses in the New Testament passing away. I get that makes our pastor's sermon today on physical, spiritual and eternal death even more relevant.

Snow All This Week

The weather forecasters in Utah are notoriously bad. They generally don't get the forecast right for tomorrow much less the 7-day forecast. I miss those forecasters in Southern California because the weather matched the computer modeling better than it does in Utah. The jet stream in particular seems to be the single largest reason the forecasters here are wrong. They have poor performance in predicting the behavior of the jet stream and thus the rain or snow could be 100 miles north or south of us with very little indication from 24-hours out.

Even though they say we will get snow for the next 7 days, I think we will be lucky to get some decent rain, since the temperature is too high for snow. It needs to be about 8 or 10 degrees colder for snow.

What is the meaning of our independence?

I ran across this speed on Powerline today from Abraham Lincoln. It was a response to Douglas and his assertion that the Dred Scott Decision was correct. It fascinated me, as I hope it will you.

July 10th, 1858 - Abraham Lincoln

Now, it happens that we meet together once every year, sometime about the 4th of July, for some reason or other. These 4th of July gatherings I suppose have their uses. If you will indulge me, I will state what I suppose to be some of them.

We are now a mighty nation, we are thirty---or about thirty millions of people, and we own and inhabit about one-fifteenth part of the dry land of the whole earth. We run our memory back over the pages of history for about eighty-two years and we discover that we were then a very small people in point of numbers, vastly inferior to what we are now, with a vastly less extent of country,---with vastly less of everything we deem desirable among men,---we look upon the change as exceedingly advantageous to us and to our posterity, and we fix upon something that happened away back, as in some way or other being connected with this rise of prosperity. We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men, they fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity that we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically connected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves---we feel more attached the one to the other, and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live for these celebrations. But after we have done all this we have not yet reached the whole. There is something else connected with it. We have besides these men---descended by blood from our ancestors---among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe---German, Irish, French and Scandinavian---men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, [loud and long continued applause] and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world. [Applause.]

Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this idea of "don't care if slavery is voted up or voted down" [Douglas's "popular sovereignty" position on the extension of slavery to the territories], for sustaining the Dred Scott decision [A voice---"Hit him again"], for holding that the Declaration of Independence did not mean anything at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of what the Declaration of Independence means, and we have him saying that the people of America are equal to the people of England. According to his construction, you Germans are not connected with it. Now I ask you in all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this Government into a government of some other form. Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow. What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will---whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop. If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it! [Voices---"me" "no one," &c.] If it is not true let us tear it out! [cries of "no, no,"] let us stick to it then, [cheers] let us stand firmly by it then. [Applause.] - Abraham Lincoln


I'm not a scholar on Abraham Lincoln and I'm certainly not a scholar on constitutional law. But it seems to me the words spoken apply equally today as they did in 1858. We are a nation filled with immigrants of single or second generation that did not have their families involved in the great struggle for independence. They did not have to sacrafice their personal wealth, family name, or family members to acchieve what we keep for granted today. So to, it occurs to me the people of Iraq are in the midst of their own struggle from beneath the oppression and tyranny not just of Sadaam but of the idea of Sharia law or Islamic law that seeks to subjugate all in the land to Islamicism or die. The Declaration of Independence applies not just to this great land but to all oppressed peoples. Let us not forget.

Eason Jordan Quits

Once again, a news executive opens his mouth and inserts his foot. Mr. Jordan claimed last month that journalists were targeted by coalition forces during the Iraq war. What a crock! I'm sure there a few torqued soldiers over the lopsided coverage from CNN (the same CNN that lied about Sadaam's henchmen so they could keep their journalists in Iraq) that wanted nothing better than take a few CNN reporters into a back alley somewhere. But CNN once again has proven itself as a gossip organization for the left rather than a legitimate news source.

Good riddance!! But that does not eliminate the need for reform at CNN. It has become a liberal platform and a megaphone for phony islamic public relations efforts.

Battlestar Gallactica

Update - February 11th
Last nights episode was about the head of Security going off on a wild goose chase to pin a bombing on the Gallactica by a Cylon human lookalike on whomever she can embarrass. Of course, she zeroed in on the chief rightaway and used his romance with the true Cylon agent as a tool to get one of his crew to lie and finally go down for the bombing. Bad for him. This episode was unexciting and irrelevant. Besides the side trip to Caprica and seeing that the Cylon human lookalikes are monitoring Helo's behavior from a distance (of course he has no idea they are watching him - although, if I were him, I'd be wondering why I don't see more bodies or cylons wondering around the streets of the capital.) Anyway, it seems implausible that he can wonder the streets and not see anyone...

What exactly is the purpose of the cylon's playing with Helo? Are they getting ready to fashion his DNA into another series of robots? Are they going to attempt to re-program him? Or maybe they want to use him strictly for experiments to test the human psychology and determine more about their enemy and what the next move by the human race might be?

I think next week we are going to finally see more Cylon's on board the Gallactica. I can't figure out what the intent is of both the humanoids in the fleet and the humanoids on Caprica. Not sure where these story threads are leading.

January 20th
Has anyone been watching this??!?!?!?

What an amazing series this will be. I can't wait to see what the Episode 33 will lead to. The 33 has to be a key that can be used against the Cylon's. Originally, I thought it had to do with their processor speed or something, but now I'm inclined to think it has something to do with their update to the mother brain (their God).

Episode Water was cool. How's Boomer going get away with being a Cylon that looks human?

And why do they keep going back to Helo on Caprica? What is the significance of that and why did they place a Boomer copy with him while sacrificing the prettier Cylon blond?

Update - January 30th.
I've been thinking about why they are covering HELO on Capria so much. It baffles me the significance of this thread in the story.

And what about Starbuck? Will she survive her fiery re-entry into some foreign planet? I'll be they find that Cylon ship intact and a few Cylon's on it to take apart and see what makes them tick. Isn't that pretty close to what happened on the original Battlestar Galactica? Only they took them apart and still didn't know how they worked. I should put in a call and tell them its "electrons".

Update - February 5th.
Okay... so Starbuck commandeered a Cylon Raider ship and discovered they don't have a pilot but are in essence nothing more than a shell with a biological control system and brain internally. Don't need all the comforts of home to pilot this rugged ship!! Now the crew can tear apart this ship and biological parts (hope Starbuck didn't throw the brain out on the moon - they might need to study it) and see what makes it tick. Secondly, how does the biological ship communicate with the mothership and other Raiders to coordinate? Thirdly, are we going to finally figure out what the biologicals are made like???? In other words, are we going to be able to determine how to tell the cylon humanoids from humans? Lastly, how long can we expect the President to live before succumbing to her cancer and getting tied into an election where the candidate's want to countermand the military leaders and take control of the fleet?

The plot seesm to be heading the same general direction as the prior series in the late 70's. I still get to see re-runs occassionally and laugh at how silly it was after seeing all the current special effects that can be created. Wow. I love this series. Great for a Friday Night!!

Stay tuned Starfighters!!

Yellowstone Blows Mercury

I heard tonight that Yellowstone National Park emits more mercury than all 1,100 coal fired power plants combined in the U.S. .... wow! And I was actually beginning to be concerned about Hg in our air and water. Why has the media misled the American public so dramatically on environmental issues when they ignore solid data about existing Hg emissions from non-manmade sources? They must believe we are complete fools.

Sort of like making the ELF look like freedom fighters for our forests and wetlands. Yeah... don't worry about the PM emitted by the burned out apartment buildings and homes that ELF sets on fire.... cause the naughty big homes are much worse than 5 tons of soot for the whole State to enjoy. This is what happens when professors like this Churchill clown are allowed to spout their rhetoric to our easily influenced children. They grow up thinking coal fired power plants are BAD and yellowstone is GOOD. Well, if Yellowstone is spewing more Hg than all our power plants combined.... then we must be wasting alot of money for just a tiny gain on Hg emissions just so we can turn on our playstation games.

So what to do..... take your kids out of public school systems... don't send money to institutions that you disagree with politically. Write your congressman and visit your school board meetings. Make sure we put God back in the classroom.

Churchill = Joker

This professor in Colorado is enjoying the media attention he is getting from his inflammatory statements about the World Trade Center victims being "little Eichmanns". Now, I'm just a little bit knowledgable in history. I'm not as educated as this bozo, but I'm knowledgeable enough to know that comparing "victims" that were murdered while sitting at their desks doing what any working stiff might do, to a Hitler henchman, that was made sure the German war machine and holocaust apparatus ran smoothly, is a stretch. In fact, if this idiot honestly believes what he said, then he has no business teaching anyone anywhere. He must be deranged. The university or his family or the courts should insist he be tested for insanity, because what he is saying is fact, is pure insanity.

That is why I believe he can't possibly believe what he stated for the meda. He is continuing to state this only to garner attention and gain his 15 minutes of celebrity, write his book, composte his memoirs, sell his movie rights, before he drops off the radar screen of media headline grabbing nutcases. He realizes (correctly) that he must stay in the spotlight as long as possible to allow the other nutcases to come to his aid and thus be able to make his bucks off this fiasco. In two months, no one will remember his name, but he will be several hundred thousand dollars richer for it and probably still teaching at the same university.

So what can we do? We can ignore the idiot. Isn't that what we do when we walk down the street and there is someone standing on the corner yelling at the top of his lungs that the world is coming to an end at 3 p.m. that day? Don't we ignore the obviously deranged people talking to themselves as you pass them in the street? That is exactly what we should do with this deranged person. If we ignore him, we will pass by him and he will be forgotten.

Isn't that what happens with all nuts we see on the street. Once we pass by him, we forget about him.

Now, what can the University do? Probably not much unless he lied about something or did not follow some critical policy or such. But the fact that he resigned from his Chairman post of the department seems to imply he recognizes he is wrong about something. My guess.... the University will give him a hard time until he is marginalized. If I were a student in that school, I would be sure to discourage everyone from signing up for his classes. How can you hope to learn something useful in a class taught by a deranged nutcase.

Third-Place for the Science Fair

I am so proud of my daughter. In spite of my pushing her all weekend to tears, in spite of the disorganization and no real idea of what she wanted to present in her project, she received a third place ribbon for all second graders.

For those of you that don't remember, we worked all weekend on this project. We started with only an idea of "energy" and "erosion". Short of constructing a whole village on a sand table and demonstrating erosion with a water stream, we were stuck. Courtney ended up using her rock tumbler to demonstrate erosion of the rocks in a stream bed (smoothing of the rocks) by the action of water carrying other rocks and sand. Then she used sandpaper and a block of wood to demonstrate the action sand carried by the wind has to create the beautiful natural arches that can be found in Arches National Park in eastern Utah.

I did not get to see her presentation, but her teacher said she did "excellent". And surprise, she called me on the way home from school yesterday to tell me about her prize. She was so excited.

Nancy Pelosi - Too Far Right?

The San Francisco Guardian news rag says Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is too far to the right for her constituents due to her voting record on development and the Iraq war. Gee, if she's too far right, then San Francisco must be a separate socialist state and we should strip them of their representatives and senators cause they don't need them in a socialist state. I'm ranting. How ridiculous can San Francisco get?

Having qualified my thoughts on Too Far Right... let me hear from you on what liberals you might consider to be too far right.

#1 - I will start by mentioning "Radio America". Ain't no America in that Radio. Good thing I can't get the program in Utah, I'd probably kick a hole in my dashboard where the radio is. The program is slanderous, deceitful and over-compensates for Rush to the point they make my stomach upset.

My Top Ten Favorite Super Bowl Moments

10. Not seeing an intoxicated Joe Namath try to pickup a woman color commentator.

9. Tivo fast forward past Terry Bradshaw's ramblings.

8. Watching a "clean" half-time show. No surprise endings?

7. Not having to watch a player pretend to poop at the base of the goal posts.

6. Tivo fast forward through the Honda commercials.

5. Correction: GoDaddy.com - no need to say more. Delete my previous choice of "Tivo fast forward through the 2005 Mustang Convertible commercials."

4. Tivo - Just because I like Tivo.

3. Watching the new F-22's do the fly over following the national anthem. I think that is the first time I have seen a formation of them (and they were painted almost a black color).

2. The U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and U.S. Coast Guard combined choirs sing the national anthem. Gave me goose bumps.

1. That commercial from Anheiser-Busch with the service men and women walking through the airport in their fatigues and carrying their gear when other passengers in the terminal spontaneously rise to their feet and thank them in a simple way by clapping their hands. Gave me goose bumps.

Super Dud!

I was bored for this Super Bowl. I admit it. I didn't care which team won and I didn't care to sit and watch 4 hours of commercials. My TIVO cut off after 4 hours and the game and commercials continued. It took until 4:38 for the opening kickoff according to my TIVO.

The wifee and I talked more about hockey and the on-going strike than we did about the SB game. We compared the SB to the Stanley Cup finals. No comparisons. Hockey teams play 80 regular season games. Generally those are 2 or 3 days apart. Occassionally, the games are back to back. They meet their Division opponents 6 times during the regular season (builds awesome rivalries). There are no players sitting out for a week at a time like football. The game is filled with speed, constant movement, unparralled punishment of the body, and infrequent ghastly bouts of violence (bench clearing brawls). What a game!!

We both feel the players union needs to be broken for the game to be healthy. Players have gotten so greedy and a handful of owners so out of control on their spending that the smaller market teams were forced into this impasse. I'd like every player to make $10 million, but the game and the market and the fans cannot support those high payrolls without the game collapsing for financial woes. It's not possible. The TV contracts are tiny in comparison to Baseball or Football or Basketball. Hockey players believe they are a major sport, but financially they are not even close to a major sport. The fan base is tiny in comparison to the 3 major sports. The union needs breaking for the game to be healthy.

A salary cap must be instituted. The owners proposedd something like 58% of revenue for the leaque is the salary cap for the players. Low by the standards of salary's today, it is nonetheless a bargaining starting point. The players reject this outright. But the owners also stated they were willing to have a third-party audit their books to determine the revenue numbers annually so the players were not getting shafted. This is interesting! The players have been rejecting the leaque reports that indicate the owners were indeed losing money but at the same time are rejecting the opportunity to select an accounting firm to examine the books of the owners annually to make sure they are not getting ripped off. In other words, they must know what the accounting firm will find and are misleading the public on their view of owners losing money. They must know it to be true inspite of what the union is saying publically.

Here is the players opportunity to capitalize on the game itself. If the game is successful, their take increases with the profits. If the game sinks in popularity and fan base, the owners and players suffer equally. Both profit or suffer from the success or failure of the game. Both share the risks equally. For too long, the players have left the yoke of the success or failure of the individual teams and league on the owners alone. The owners (stupidly) should have insisted on something similar in 94 during the last lockout. I think with all the expansion teams and certainty in the game, it would have been in a much better place today had that occurred.

Players have become greedy. A player may only have a few years in the sport at their prime, but that does not guarantee them the right to reach into my pocket and take an $85 dollar seat price from me. Ridiculous. The same price at a baseball game puts me behind home plate. The same price at a football game puts me inside the 40 yard line. The same price at a basketball game keeps me in the lower tier. Ridiculous.

I believe not just the owners have taken all the risks. As a fan, I've taken a risk. Ticket prices alone justify my anger over this impasse. I've invested my interest in this sport to the detriment of basketball and football. I don't watch any other sport now. I care for the game. It is an emotional attachment. I want a better game. A game where I know my kids can grow to enjoy the speed and style of a well executed powerplay or the thrill of odd man rushes up and down the ice. I want the players to fold and accept the risk for their future as we must accept the risk of our future every day.

What About Ron & Nicole?

You know, I'm continually amazed nobody has drug that terrible man off into the brush on the side of one of the golf courses he routinely plays. How can this person get off scott free for a double murder he obviously committed? Because the jury system (especially the California jury system) is broke.

What about the people of Iraq and the oil for food scandal? You've got several heads of the U.N. oil for food program that made millions off kickbacks and insider contracts with Sadaams henchmen while Kofi (remindes me of Uncle Buck) sat on his hands. And when the hounds came home and the significance of the corruption was discovered to be far beyond even our limited understanding..... Crazy Uncle Buck Kofi claims ignorance and protects those involved by burying records, not releasing reports and generally deny deny deny (sound like someone familiar??? hint, hint, hint - Bill Clinton). Makes me wonder the depths of corruption we have not discovered yet at the U.N. ....... And to think Ron & Nicole's murderer is still out there.... right.... and he said he was actively looking? Right.

The U.N. wants desperately to be a leader in the world... but as far as I can determine... they are only the leader in corruption and unaccountable spending. Our wonder U.N. contribution tax dollars at work.

State of the Union

I didn't get to catch the State of the Union on Wednesday, but this is my observations based upon the news coverage (national and local).

The Demoncats didn't like the social security agenda of this speech. In fact, they were taking all week to try and undercut the ideas even before the speech was presented. Senator Barbara Boxer comes to mind (how California keeps electing her... baffles me). What....?!?!? We can't have a system in place that allows us to plan for our own futures? Social security is an entitlement program... plain and simple.... it is intended to transfer wealth from the wealthy to the not so wealthy. Social security deductions in my pay check have always increased since I've begun working, never decreased and never allowed me to choose the level of risk for my future. My elected legislator's knew the system was going to be insolvent years ago and keep tweaking it throughout the years to preserve it until the next election. Eight years of the Clinton Agenda that was supposed to be pro-social programs and all we got was a healthcare proposal that took away all choice. What a relief... they might have really tried to fix it and increased my withholding so I couldn't eat.

I should be allowed to control my retirement future. Senator Boxer wants to control my future because she may honestly believe she has the best idea.... but how can that be possible when she has no idea what it is like to live today with the taxation rates, increasing medical insurance costs, lower returns for small investors. She can't possibly know how it is to live and wonder if you are going to be layed off next week or next month. The two Senators in California come from extremely wealthy families. How can they possibly know what it is like for us hardworking taxpayers?

What a crock! They say "leave it alone"... but don't have a plan. They say it is guaranteed today... right... I've heard that before. Ain't nothing guaranteed anymore. Your job, your health insurance, your tax rates.... Send a letter to your Senator... sometimes they listen. I know the State legislators listen in Utah. I've talked to them in person, by telephone and by letter. They want the best for us. I can't say the same for the liberal minority at the National Capital.

Utah Local News

If you've ever visited Utah, you should realize this state is essentially controlled by the mormon's. They control the media, the government, the schools and even the liquor stores. They monitor your comings and goings in your neighborhood (although this may just be my paranoia) and know whether to visit your home and if you'd be receptive to "missionaries". The neighbors inform their local ward and the assigned missionaries will inevitably show up and attempt to convert you in a series of steps. First of course, is to establish a basic acquaintance.

The local news usually has a leadoff story once a week about some missionary in Idaho or Southern Utah or South America that was killed in an automobile accident. Unbelievably, that is the lead story. Not about the child abduction in Provo or the multicar pileup in the fog near the airport, but a story about missionary's leads off the local news. And all the local news outlets do exactly the same thing. Go figure.

But I do admire the news outlets in Utah. It is a mix of local folksy style news mixed with factual national news. Of course, you have to put up with all the latest messages from the "prophet" mixed in, but I do agree with their political view. They want good schools, low taxes, quality roads, great emergency services and above all... prayer in school.

School Science Projects

My kids picked some science projects that I have no idea how to set up the display. Erosion is possibly the most difficult to do. To do it right, you need a demonstration, but to carry a small sand table and tank in and out of school is impossible. Plus, the wifee would have to do it since I can't be there in the morning. It's due Monday morning and we are really just getting started this morning. Hope we succeed... keep your fingers crossed!!

Also, the son is going to demonstrate the differences between plants that are watered with regular water versus those watered with distilled water. Maybe over about a year you might see a difference due to the minerals in the water, but without controls set-up on the soil (like using gravel instead of nutrient rich soil), there should be no difference. But that's what he chose and we will make it work. It's been 3 weeks and I'm sure we will never be able to tell the difference.

It's getting late... but we've got a plan.
The daughter is doing wind and water erosion. We've got her rock tumbler from Christmas for the water erosion concept and sandpaper and a block of wood for the wind erosion. Using these basis demonstrations, we can show the pictures of Arches National Park in Utah where wind erosion over thousands of years created some faboulous natural rock arches. Smooth stones from a local stream bed will demonstrate the abrasiveness of water erosion under the correct conditions. I think we are going to be okay.