The recession is unofficially over

Don't you feel better now?

We may all want to move to KS . . .

. . . because some in their state senate are planning to opt out of a federal socialized medicine program.

However, I wouldn't bet on the feds letting that happen. Besides, if all freedom loving American's moved there it might get kind of crowded.

Only a few more days until #3 son's first hunt

We can hardly wait. In the mean time we got some good pics on the game cam.

Here is a nice bit of venison.

He wanted to come back and let us get a pic of his other side.


Here is some more with a nice helping of turkey on the side.


This is another nice chunk of meat.


Here are a couple of younger ones.


This is a shot of some very tender meat standing with next years crop.


This could be Thanksgiving dinner. The tree rat just had to get into the shot.


We could have ham for dinner.


Here are some hors d'oeuvres. Now you know the purpose of the cage and sheet metal.


Thieves.

I hope everyone has good luck in the hunting field this season.

Hussein has tied President Bush at something

Some people liked to complain about how much golf President Bush played while in office. Well, President Hussein has now played as much golf in his first 9 months in office as President Bush did in 2 years and 10 months.

Here is your link.

For my part I wish President Hussein would play more golf. That would leave him less time to harm the nation.

Getting #3 son ready for his first hunt

He is 6. I took him out Saturday to do a little shooting. We hadn't been out for a while so I had to go over the Four Rules with him a little. After a few warmup shots at paper with the .22 he was doing pretty well and fired several nice groups. We switched to a steel plate. I think it is a 4" diameter plate. When he hit it 6 times in a row I declared him "up to speed enough" and he switched to a "deer rifle".

This is a Marlin 336 with an XS Scout Mount and a Simmons Prohunter 2x pistol scope on it. It also has an adjustable cheek rest from Fulton Armory. If you search the blog you will find links to this stuff. The youngster was also using a PAST Magnum Recoil Shield.

The ammunition was Remington Managed Recoil factory loads which have a 125gr pointed softpoint Corelokt bullet at a nominal 2175fps. It has much less recoil than full power factory ammo. My experience is that this is plenty of power if you hit a deer properly. Again, if you search back through the blog you can probably find some info on deer that my oldest boy has taken with this load.

At any rate the young hunter fired his first shot at 25 yards to see what it was like. He liked it. He said he enjoyed the recoil. Good man. I like a good belt up to a point. He then fired 3 more shots at the same target. His first group with a "high powered" rifle was four shots in about 3" at 25 yards.

When his older brothers could do as well at about his age they were declared ready to make venison and they did just that.

I think we'll have a full freezer again this year.

Sitting out in the dark and freezing cold for hours waiting for deer and turkey to come along is good for youngsters. "It builds character" and all that sort of stuff. The same boy that will sometimes stop and cry when he gets a grass burr while walking will say "Ow, ow, ow!!!" and keep going when he gets a grass burr while he's helping to lift his deer into the back of a truck. Seeing what a bullet will do to a living creature gives youngsters a respect for firearms that talking and books just can't deliver. Seeing, smelling and touching a still warm animal and later eating a meal from that same animals helps youngsters understand their place in the world and where food comes from. Kids know that hamburger comes from cows and fried chicken comes from a bird, but they don't really KNOW it until they've had a hand in the process and seen it for themselves.

Get your kids out in the field. Killing things and eating them should be part of their education.

Maybe I should call my mortgage company

Why? Check this out.

I could call them and tell them that if they don't knock a bunch off my principle then I'll just quit paying. This area isn't hurting as bad as many parts of the country but there are a lot of For Sale signs around and a lot of them have been up for quite a while.

I'll call this strategy "post-contractual renegotiation" or some such legalese sounding nonsense. It works for the government, right? If it's good enough for them then it ought to be good enough for me.

To steal a line from Dilbert, "I'm working smarter, not harder."

The government paying the mortgage for the unemployed in PA

So if you're unemployed in PA you only have to pay $25 per month on your mortgage?

That's a nice gig if you can get it. Between the government forcing someone else to pay for your mortgage and your health insurance unemployement doesn't seem so bad.

The program is supposed to last for two or three years "depending on the individual's finances and the economic situation" which means three years. After three years I guess the individual is supposed to start paying back the loan, but the the article doesn't mention any details of that. When the state of PA starts trying to make people pay back these loans you will hear wailing and whining about the poor victim having to pay back two loans at the same time.

My favorite part is where the article mentions describes the program as one "which has depleted resources". No kidding. I can't think of any forced wealth redistribution program that doesn't have "depleted resources". They ALL have that. If there is ever a forced wealth redistribution plan that doesn't have "depleted resources" then the government will expand the program to cover more people and transfer larger amounts of money until the resources are depleted.

As obvious as the whole "depleted resources" issue is, what is the federal government doing? If you said "More of the same and piled higher and deeper" then you are right.

From the article:

Using taxpayer funds to keep out-of-work homeowners in their homes until they find another job is an option being looked at by some officials in the Obama administration, according to people familiar with government financial rescue programs.

At issue is an administration program that is employing $50 billion in taxpayer funds from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to help lenders modify mortgages for troubled homeowners.

When I was a kid I remember one of the many times I did something stupid. I don't remember what I did but I do remember my dad asking me "Why did you do that?"

I replied "My older sister did it, too."

He replied "If she went out and stepped in a pile of dog mess on purpose and tracked it on the carpet would you do that, too?"

Evidently, this administration would.

Here is another little bit that I love:

The loans would not accrue interest until their income is restored.

I see a benefit of high inflation rates as far as the government is concerned. Want to bet on whether the "income is restored" part is indexed to the inflation rate?

I don't think we have to worry too much about the recipients of this program ever having to pay back these "loans" from the government.

I don't really know what the answer is to this situation, but I'm pretty sure that throwing more money at it isn't going to help.