Brian’s Morning Newsletter for June 22nd 2009

http://outfitnm.com/forum/ Letters and comments
Good morning
Sorry I messed up the mailing list again this morning.
I installed the newest version of 64 bit Kubuntu yesterday. Why? I didn’t have any malfunction with my computer. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. As a retired PC serviceman I hear peoples woes and I often tell users to wipe their PCs every now and then, to flush them out and get a fresh start. Every now and then I take my own advice. Dad told me yesterday that he had too many files on his PC to erase the hard drive. This attitude is precariously disastrous  at best.  It means people don’t have their important backed up. Should something go wrong with the PC, well that’s it then.

I prefer to kill the sucker on my schedule. I’ve been running an older version of Kubuntu ever since this PC crashed during the Winter. For some reason it wasn’t letting me do some of the things I wanted to do. For example under add remove programs things were grayed out, programs I wanted to install were unavailable. Then about a week ago I received word that a new version of Alien Arena was released! That did it. I decided to back up my files and began downloading Kubuntu from http://www.kubuntu.org/ The 700meg file took about 45 minutes to download with Desertgate’s awesomely quick Internet connection.

I began to move files over to my 160 Gig hard drive, when i got the message that the disk was full. No biggie. There was still stuff on that hard disk from the old Outfit days that could go. Only problem was much of that crap was Windows format, and I had to change the permissions to allow a different user besides the original owner to delete the files. That was pretty straight forward and it seemed to let me get rid of a lot of junk, but I was still getting disk full errors. Honestly, I didn’t really care, the pleasant thought of a fresh operating system overrode my anxiety about a current back up.

Anyway, it seems I missed the BMN mailing list file. So I had to go back to the mailing list file that I used after the computer crash, which as we know was missing many of the current email addresses. Whoops. Hopefully everyone knows now about the forum and the new website and can jump to those places and find out what is going on here and shoot me a message at brodgers@desertgate.com letting me know they fell off again.

So the really big news is that Nell and I drove up to Ojo Feliz (north of La Cueva and Rainsville) to Ed’s and Patsy’s home. After more than a month of tirelessly working through my options for a truck, on Friday I came to the conclusion that I wanted to buy Ed’s bad ass dually Dodge. Thanks to Desertgate for getting me a lot of work this last week we were able to make a payment on the truck. Yeah, as you know I’ve been going in and out, up and down about what to do about my lack of a truck, which was compounded by the fact that we didn’t have any money to work with either.

After thinking through the process of first removing the engine and transmission from Ed’s truck and going through the incredibly arduous and complicated tasks needed to install a diesel engine in a gas powered truck, not too mention the fact that it is a different brand and one a inline six cylinder and the old a V8 I came to the conclusion that it was more work than it was ever going to be worth. Besides, as Ed pointed out I have enough major projects in the fire without adding a big mess like swapping engines and drive trains to get a four wheel drive out of the deal.

We will use the truck like it is with the understanding that the lack of four wheel drive will limit the usefulness of the truck in the deep woods and for certain limit Wintertime use, well at least when there is snow ion the ground. The rest of the time the truck ought to kick ass. One big plus is of course the relief that I don’t have to do all that work on my Ford because the drive train wasn’t the only issue with that truck. I’ve known for years that I I wasn’t going to rebuild the engine and therefor let a lot of things go to pot on that poor old truck, and this was the clincher in my evolution of thinking of Friday. 

Ed is selling us the truck for $2500, with the $150 in trade for wireless network work I did for them last year and the $200 we handed them yesterday we now owe $2150. I know it isn’t much, but the ball is rolling and I can move ahead, and this is what really matters, because dang, I was all twisted up in thinking and even over-thinking this problem for the last few months. Let’s hope the economy begins so lighten up, so we can get moving forward on financial stuff, right?

Again sorry about the mailing list, but Jaunty Jackalope Kubuntu is friggin quick and as soon as I figure out how to work a few more things with it, I’ll get Alien Arena 2009 loaded up and be havin a real good time.
Because, ain’t havin a good time what it is all about?
Brian Rodgers

How about some letters this morning?
I wish these were over on the forum http://outfitnm.com/forum/
Mike Hayes’

cars killing as much as smoking?

You wrote that cars kill more people than smoking?

Where do you get those facts?

There are at least a thousand websites substantiating deaths caused by smoking, more than 5 million people die every year due to smoking, something like 500,000 in the U.S. Cars don’t cause that many deaths in ten years.

I agree we need to find a better way of getting around, at least get rid of the combustible engine, but we still need individual modes of transportation. I’m personally not willing to walk five miles to the nearest rail to get a ride within twenty miles of where I’m going. When I lived in Tusas, around a lifetime ago, I had an issue with my car and I walked from Tusas to Midway grocers (Titos) every night to get a ride to work. I worked nights at that time and for about three months, December into March, I walked, froze my ass off and hitched to work. Another time when I lived in Denver, I used to catch the bus across the street from my apartment, ride it to downtown, catch another bus that dropped me about five miles from work, that was the closest route. Point being, especially since I have children, I’m not willing to do that again, even if it was a commute to work without my children, I’m not willing. Are you? Can you honestly say that you would be willing to to Tito’s to catch a ride on some type of commuter bus, because you know it would not be reasonable to think they would put a rail from Vegas to Mora, then walk to your work in a blistering sub zero wind in the middle of winter? Let’s be honest.

If you haven’t noticed, we have decided to spend less time up at our place this summer, we felt we needed to drive less.

Our government is what makes me sick, they keep bailing out these companies, insurance companies, automobile companies, all these companies that have taken total advantage of all of us for years, and now that they aren’t making enough money to satisfy them, the cry foul and WE have to bail them out.

I think all auto makers should have to come up with a different design, something that doesn’t pollute, that doesn’t use up our natural resources, but I also think they need to outlaw ALL tobacco products, tobacco kills people in a worse way than putting a gun to someone’s head, it makes them suffer for years and that costs us taxpayers billions in healthcare costs. You want healthcare reform, understand we need to start taking better care of ourselves. Nothing is free for most of us.

Mike Hayes

——————-          

Also need to outlaw the foul bile coffee, as I hate the way it stinks and people littering with the cups all over…

Nick

————— 

GOOD GRIEF!   Enough already Nick!  Do you intend to let us make up our own mind about anything?

Eric
————-   

Aw, come on Eric, it was a joke!  While I hate coffee, there are a few who like it.  We aren’t going to outlaw it.  The current debate here in LC is about allowing chickens in city limits.  A couple of naysayers are whining about flies, etc, etc.  ANy thoughts from our friends up north in ABQ, where they are allowed?

Nick

————- 

No joke, Nick!  Too many of our rights are being stripped away in this "Land Of The Free".

Those naysayers in LC aren’t alone.  They don’t know what they’re talking abut either.  There’s a growing movement in many cities to allow family chicken flocks.  I’ve raised chickens for over 28 years and they do NOT draw flies if it isn’t wet where their droppings collect under their roosts.  The average home flock will never draw flies any more than a dog or cat will.  Roosters don’t crow all night and so are a lot quieter than a lot of dogs are with their barking all night.    Once in a while a rooster might crow at night but not all night like lots of dogs do.  If you want to keep chickens in LC you need to get the councilmen to visit a home size flock to see for themselves.

Eric
————–       

Roosters can be a pain in the ass, and they can crow at all hours of the

day and night.

But you don’t need roosters unless you want fertile eggs. Hens will give

you all of the other benefits.

Lee

————–    

Lee, Nick, Eric, Et,al;

This google list is soon to disappear. Please take your comments to

the forum. Let’s let this open discourse continue. here’s the link

again;

http://outfitnm.com/forum/

Thanx, JD

I’m outta town for a while, please post to the forum.

—————–    

It’s true that hens don’t need a rooster to lay eggs.  But it isn’t true that you can get ALL the other benefits that a rooster can give.  You wouldn’t say that if you really knew chickens.  Some people think a rooster’s crow is musical.  It’s also true that a rooster may crow at any hour but he will go back to sleep.  And most folks get used to it at night and don’t even hear it unless they’re awake anyway. 

Eric

————

I can only assume this is in response to my story about whale oil, sigh. How many ways do I have to say I am kidding and this is my humor? You see with satire the writer doesn’t need any stinkin facts. Is everything going to be alright over there Mike, you sound on the verge of going postal?
Take a deep breath.
Let it out slowly

Brian

—————  

One of our neighbors here had a rooster. Because of the crime problem,

there are also a bunch of security lights which are on much of the

night, and the rooster apparently had no idea when it was actually

sunrise – it would crow at 2, 3, 4 in the morning.

It was not musical.

I used to envision it floating in a pot with carrots, onions, turnips,

spuds.

One day it crowed no more. Don’t know if a dog got it, if it ended up as

stew or whether it just lost a cock fight, but I can tell you its

passing was not greatly mourned.

Lee
———-    

No postal here Brian, I guess I just don’t see the humor of your whale

oil story. While you are correct in saying a lot of people believe the

advertisements they see on tv, the rest of it, what you are saying is

your humor, is just whacked, not funny at all. I have known a couple

of people dieing from lung cancer due to smoking, huge impact on me

quitting smoking. Although I may endure a much worse death than them,

I can still think of a million ways I would rather die.

Whereas you seem to hate the car companies that have provided you and

your family with many vehicles, I see them as companies that provide

jobs for working men and women trying to support their families. These

huge corporations didn’t start off as huge corporations, they started

small, not unlike your "RE shop", they started with a good idea and

people liked that idea. I don’t think when these companies got started

they had ANY idea at all what the adverse impacts those ideas would

have on the planet, I don’t believe the original people, Henry Ford

and who ever else, came up with this and thought " the hell with the

planet as long as I get mine". They are out of control now and

definitely need to change their products to have a smaller impact on

the planet, but you need to look at everyone around you and throw some

of the blame at them. I personally like the Smart car, it’s different,

but I think it looks kind of cool, but most people laugh and snicker

at them. They don’t meet my needs, or I would have one, kind of hard

piling two adults and three or four children in one of those. People

don’t like change, they are used to bigger vehicles, and I have heard

people state that a vehicle is a status symbol, heard that one from a

guy with a Ford Ranger pick up. hehehe. Car companies need to do the

right thing and make vehicles that are a smaller impact on the earth

while also providing what people need. Besides Brian, if you get rid

of cars, you get rid of my job, that’s just not going to work for me.

Speaking of work…

There’s no postal here, plenty of disgust for different stuff, but all

is fine in the land of enchantment via Rio hell. You still haven’t

answered any of my questions.

Mike Hayes

And who doesn’t enjoy hearing a rooster in the middle of the night?

Got to be better than my neighbor’s freaking asshole dogs.

———–     

I’d much rather hear a rooster than that horrific stupid noise some imbeciles think is music.  If there is no singing and no instruments, it is not music.  Talking some nonsense to a mechanical beat is not music, it’s just stupid!

Nick

——— 

I don’t think chickens are allowed in Rio Rancho, least not in our

neighborhood, but I can’t hardly believe how many people leave lights

on outside all night long. It’s just incredible to me how people

unconsciously leave lights on. I can lay in bed and there’s always a

glow at my window from all the outside lights left on. We don’t have

many street lights out here, but there are times I’ll leave or return

in the evening and there’s twenty, thirty houses in a row, both sides

of the street with their outside lights on, and in this subdivision,

these houses have three outside lights in the front, one on the porch,

ad one on each side of the garages, and those are all run from one

switch. Even with my 9W bulbs, that’s too much to leave on for no

reason, most are 100W each. I see global warming in the making every

night. It also amazes me to see how people seem to turn on every damn

light they have inside their houses, just don’t understand how they

pay their electric bills.

Mike Hayes

————-    

Mike wrote "No postal here Brian, I guess I just don’t see the humor of your whale

 Your comments do make me rethink many of the stances I’ve ranted about in the past, and that is a good thing.

Humor:  Not sure though why you don’t get my humor, I see  what you are saying about smoking, of course it is bad, but why can’t we make fun of the bad things in life to help us have a happier life? Anyway the deal is done, tobacco smokers are being severely punished for our sins, isn’t it enough?

We make fun of everything, the topic a comedian picks suits different types of people.

I never suggested that I hate anything, not even the car companies. I have said it makes me cringe when I see advertisements suggesting people buy a SUV so they can tear up the countryside. I’m also evolving into a person concerned that humans have taken their self righteousness too far when pitting themselves against nature, even when they say they are doing it to support families.

Fish all the fish from the sea, pump every last drop of oil, cut all the trees to build gigantic homes which cost a fortune to heat, where is the line which tells us this lifestyle is unsustainable?

Let the American auto manufacturers build mass transportation vehicles, then they keep their precious jobs and the rest of us left wing radical thinkers  will be happier that they are doing something that could be better for the environment.

I don’t know, I’m just saying

Brian

———–        

It is unfortunate the way the government is punishing smokers. I think

it is just one more control thing for them, one more thing they can

say when and where we can do anything, it’s ridicules. I don’t know if

it is true or not, but I would tend to believe it, someone told me in

some state, possibly Arizona???? If you are caught smoking inside your

home with small children, CYFD can take your children and you can be

arrested for child endangerment. Like I said, I heard this, don’t know

if it’s true, but I wouldn’t doubt it. I don’t like it when our

government infringes on our rights, lives, vices. They allow a product

to be out there, they allow us to get addicted to it, then the

strangle us with it, just not right.

I do believe if we are to have some type of affordable healthcare in

this country, we are all going to have to make some changes in our

lifestyles. It’s kind of like with the global warming or the oil

shortage issues, we all need to change the way we are driving, or how

much we are driving, and what type of vehicle we are driving.

I’m sorry I didn’t get your humor, I normally do. I re-read that BMN

again, and for the life of me, I’m not getting it. So I’m a stupid

redneck, what can I say. I do however, feel for all of you smokers, I

was there for more than half my life, and I am still suffering some of

the ill-effects of my smoking. If I come off sounding like I am

totally against smoking, understand, I hate what smoking does to

people, not the people that smoke.

Mike Hayes

—————-  

Ya!  In this land of the "Free"!  Our government can take away our rights as long as more than half of our elected representatives want to.  We can drink ourselves into oblivion but we can’t smoke pot.  We can’t fight cocks.  We can’t build a shack to live in even if we own the land to build it on.    In lots of cities we can’t let our pets have babies without a license.   And now they are talking about MAKING us buy health insurance.  Are they going to make us do next?  Just what DOES free mean anyway?  Is it enough to be allowed to vote for those who will sell their votes to the owners of the corporations?  That alone doesn’t make me feel very free.

Eric
———- 

True that Eric! You nailed it. I don’t think allow us fight cocks

anymore, at least not in the land of enlightenment…. One thing for

sure is though, we do have more rights here than people in most other

countries. Even though I don’t partake anymore due to work, but I do

believe they should legalize pot, it might screw a lot of dealers, but

oh well, I think the end result would far out weigh the dealers’

losses.

You could probably get away with building something on your land to

live in as long as it can’t be seen from the road, how are they going

to know anything about it?

Mike Hayes

———-

Here is a quote from the  Construction Industries Division web site: "Our function is to provide for the protection of life and property by adopting and enforcing building codes and standards, thereby promoting the general welfare of the people of New Mexico."     "… promoting the general welfare of the people of New Mexico.??????" What the fuck does that even mean? Let’s just say they meant to write, … improving the lives, instead of promoting the general welfare of the people of where ever.

Anyone been down to their office for a permit? Perhaps they do mean promoting welfare, because if you want to build a structure out of anything except steel and wood it will be called a "special material building permit, and then you are truly screwed my friends. They will tell you that you must have a professional civil engineer design the structure. No offense to Nick as we know that is what you do, but people have been building  homes out of mud and whatever they can find  lying  around  for  thousands of years, some of those houses work out well and others don’t depending  on the materials and skill of the builder.

Most of us know what Murphy’s law is, and many of now know what the Darwin Award is for, but who among us knows someone or even heard of someone building such a piece of junk home that it fell in on them and hurt themselves or their family? I never heard of this happening. So to whose general welfare is the CID referring to? The contractors, of course. So it stands to reason that CID doesn’t trust State licensed contractors. Which is probably sound reasoning since they cut every corner to build as cheap as possible.

My next leap of reason suggests that people who want to build their own dwelling should be allowed to do so with the logical understanding that if it falls down, the home owner will be the one to suffer.   It is in our best interest to build our homes soundly, regardless of prior building knowledge. If the electric company wants to come by and check the wiring before they hook us up, they ought to do so. No need for government involvement. I like the Libertarians on their stance, "keep the government out of our personal business."

P.S. I am posting this on our forum which you can reply to at http://outfitnm.com/forum/index.php?topic=26.0

Brian

————-   

Wow Brian! I think you need to take your own advice you gave to me a

couple days ago, take a sloooooowwwww deeeepppp breath, hold it, hold

it, now let it out slowly.

Nothing you said can be argued, not even by me. The main reason our

government has ALL these "strict" building codes is to protect

contractors, like you said, but more so to protect the insurance

companies, go figure. Our government is controlled so heavily by the

insurance companies, they have caused our government to infringe on

our way of life as we see fit.

 We are fortunate in NM for the fact we have Michael Reanolds, his

last name isn’t looking right so I probably didn’t spell it right, up

in Taos and he has been building Earthships for many years and when

building that type of structure, you can take in a bunch of

documentation and with a little perseverance, you should be able to

get a permit. Adobe is another substance that has been used a lot in

NM for centuries and you can get all the info for footings and such

online to take in with you. The one major hoop you do have to jump

through though is the rafters, even if you tell them you are building

them yourself, and you have a drawing, they still want an engineer

stamp. What did you do for your permit on the re shop? Did they give

you a bunch of crap on how you wanted to build your rafters? If you

order rafters through a company, like Romero feed and lumber, they

come with that engineer stamp, so that’s no addition cost.

I think the government should stay out of it, but maybe what they

should do is if a person wants to build a house without a permit, then

let the insurance companies charge higher fees or don’t allow them to

be able to insure it, something that protects everyone.

You know Brian, you hit on a lot of good subjects sometimes, things

that need to be taken to another level. Most people understand that

Ralph Nader isn’t going to do anything he says, especially for the

people of New Mexico, but you have time and I believe you have the

passion needed on some of these things. Have you ever thought about

doing some lobbying, maybe at the county level, or state level better

yet? You have a forum if you need signatures, that’s a start. Maybe

you should think about it.

By the way, that remark about Ralph Nader isn’t meant to be mean, I

just don’t think he will change anything anytime soon in NM. I have

been wrong before.

Thinking green is easy, doing things in a green way is anything but,

Mike Hayes

-     

    

   I’d like to know what Barack Obama thinks he’s doing with the fiasco we call the US economy.  He can’t pump it back into the credit-fueled freak show it used to be, of course, but he could steer it in a practical new direction.  Even people who have lost a lot, and stand to lose more, can be motivated to behave more self-beneficially. The president doesn’t have very long before his economic problems become really awful political problems.

     The current mass delusion that will go down in history as the "green shoots fugue" can’t possibly bring the credit freak show back because the credit — i.e. money borrowed from the American future — was swindled away.  Something like $14 trillion worth of nominal dollars is being sucked into a cosmic vortex never to be seen again.  It was last seen in the spectral forms of so many collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, so-called structured investment vehicles and other now-obvious frauds.  That giant sucking sound we hear means the process is still underway, and the "money" disappearing into yawning oblivion will out-pace any effort orchestrated by the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury to replace it with new "money" (or credit).  Therefore there is no chance between heaven and hell that the pre-2008 suburban homesteading and shopping fiesta can ever come back. The American polity is tapped out in all sectors, personal, corporate, and public.

     Notice the two words largely absent from whatever public discussion exists around these matters — "swindle" and "fraud."  The reason they’re missing is because if they happened to enter the conversation, something would have to be done about them, namely investigations and prosecutions. The president is the person in the best position to set the terms of this public discussion, and by avoiding these two words he’s blowing the chance to begin the process of correcting the tragic course we’re on.

     These swindles and frauds range from malfeasance at the highest levels to indecency in the lowliest cubicles — i.e. the collusion of a revolving cast of cabinet-level officials with Wall Street executives to loot the US Treasury, the probable criminal dereliction at the mid-level of agencies like the Federal Reserve’s oversight office and the SEC, to certain and outright street grifting in the traffic of securities known to be worthless at their creation. The current fiction that the public seems to be swallowing (for the moment) is along the lines of the old "mistakes were made" locution, which is an easy way to avoid holding individuals responsible for misdeeds.  

     The competence and hence the legitimacy of the US government is on the line here. The US economic situation is going to get a lot worse. Many more people are going to lose incomes and chattels and will suffer, and the moment will arrive when they will direct their anger outward.  They need to be told two things

:

  that the borrowed-against future is now here, requiring very different  behavior

;

and that those who received lavish payment for looting the American future unlawfully will be subject to due process of law. So far, nobody has even been fired, let alone officially investigated.

     Meanwhile, the nation is lumbering toward an epochal moment of truth when the non-viability of how we get by day-to-day is exposed for all to see, including those other nations who have been lending us colossal sums of their hard-earned money to keep our operations afloat. This will be the moment when the US renounces its debt — or just proves unable to continue pretending to service it.  This moment is liable to come sometime after the middle of this summer. It will be the moment when all the green shoots babytalk stops and the scope of onrushing hardship becomes self-evident. It will be the moment when all of America finds itself in something like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the federal government proves comically impotent and the cold reality hits that we’re now all on our own.

      If it comes to that, I will be sorry to see Barack Obama in the goat-leader role formally occupied by George W. Bush. I voted for Mr. Obama mainly because I thought he had the capacity to tell the public the truth and inspire them to move forward out of childish indulgence into a more rigorous and challenging way of life consistent with the mandates of reality. I’m still not convinced that he’ll fail at this, but time is growing awfully short.

     The dreadful moment may arrive with the functional bankruptcy of California, which is on-schedule, as it happens, for July.  Governor Schwarzenegger, who really seems to have tried introducing fiscal reality out there, and just plain failed, will surely come to the White House begging for a bail-out.  It would be hard for President Obama to turn him down, but then forty-nine other governors will line up behind Arnold and everybody in the world will see what a farce our governance has turned into

:

a snake eating its own tail.

____________________________________


My 2008 novel of the post-oil future,

World Made By Hand

, is available in paperback  at all booksellers. I am at work on the sequel.    

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2009 June 22

Atlas 5 Rocket Launches to the Moon
Credit: NASA

Explanation: This rocket is headed for the Moon. Pictured above, a huge Altas V rocket roared off the launch pad last week to start NASA’s first missions to Earth’s Moon in 10 years. The rocket is carrying two robotic spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is scheduled to orbit and better map the Moon, search for buried and hidden ice, and return many high resolution images. Some images will be below one-meter in resolution and include images of historic Apollo landing sites. Exploratory data and images should allow a more informed choice of possible future astronaut landing sites. The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is scheduled to monitor the controlled impact of the rocket’s upper stage into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole. This impact, which should occur in about three months, might be visible on Earth through small telescopes.