Life's Inanities and Ironies

TODAY the Senate is voting on yet another massive spending bill -- the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill that contains more than 2,900 pages! Worse yet, the bill is laden with 8,500 pork-filled earmarks totaling more than $7.7 billion including: --$1.8 million for pig odor and manure management --$200,000 for a "tattoo-removal violence-outreach program" in Los Angeles --$1.9 million for a water taxi service in Connecticut (this is actually being called the taxi to nowhere) --$473,000 for National Council of La Raza (which has supported radical Mexican nationalism within our borders) --$951,500 for "Sustainable Las Vegas" --$300,000 for the Montana World Trade Center --$238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Honolulu, Hawaii. --$280,000 for alternative uses for tobacco --$400,000 to combat bullying in Montana --$2 million "for the pr...

For some of us, it’s that time of the year again when we ask “ when does daylight saving time end ?” even when it has just started. It’s probably the only disliked idea that came from Benjamin Franklin, who thought of Daylight Saving Time ( DST ) or Summer Time originally. Dislike might even be a weak word for it since Google searches has smatterings of “ abolish daylight saving time ” and “ demonstrations against daylight saving time .” Demonstrations… . One of the rationale used for implementing DST is energy conservation. We are supposed to save energy from being less inside our homes and therefore using less appliances and consuming less electricity. Daylight Saving Time had some backing from a U.S. Department of Transportation research done in the ’70s that cited a small but significant (1%) savings in energy consumption… if all goes well. Problem is, not all researches point that way. I need those here in the Hoosier State to pay attention...especially "My Man Mitch...

I've got a '95 Chrysler Concorde, 3.5L 6 Cylinder 214 hp, that I have been running a 50/50 mix in off and on for the last year with no issues. I started out adding a gallon of E85 more at each fill up till I hit the 50/50 mix. Only thing I've done is change the fuel filter, but even that was in regular maintenance schedule. System is running cooler according to the gages and mileage dropped 2 mpg on the highway but it went up 2-3 MPG in town. My average overall stayed aprox the same and I love the added oomph when I hit the "gas" to pass. Why am I telling you all this? Because of what happened at my last fill up and a question I was asked by the station attendant at the local ststion where I buy my E85. Keep in mind that I have been buying E85 at this station for nearly a year or better with no problem. I did my normal “fill”, (half a tank) at the regular pumps then pulled over to the E85 pump to put in the other half. The pump wouldn’t come on…flip...

If you live in the United States, you probably think that your household wages land you squarely in the category most of us call "middle class." Most people in the U.S. tend to identify themselves this way, even when their incomes are greatly above or greatly below the median level. For example, if you watch the news, you know that households that make over $100,000 consider themselves middle class and say so, often while fretting about how much they will have to pay in taxes in the course of the coming years. In fact, during the last presidential campaign, some people were very upset that Barack Obama wanted to rescind the Bush tax cuts for households earning over $250,000. They argued that in America today, $250,000 is a solidly middle class income, and that making people who earn this much go back to paying more in taxes was a direct attack on the middle class. According to data collected by the U.S Census Bureau in 2005, only 15% of the households in the United Stat...