League of American Voters - League of American Voters Petition

League of American Voters - League of American Voters Petition

If you care about how we are taxed, take a look...

7 Weeks

Bird season in Georgia is about 7 weeks away. By birds, I mean quail. Time to get the dogs polished up on some commands, and day dream about days afield not too far away...

Jake might be smelling birds from the truck









Casting about...

























Belle with the retrieve...







Photos from a 2006 hunt just around Thanksgiving...

Gubmint Bailouts

I don't think I am smart enough to figure out a way out of the current economic morass. Apparently a lot of other people aren't smart enough either, since it happened and there are supposed to be a whole lot of smart people making sure these things don't happen.

Well, another thing, a large percentage of people are not as smart as they think they are. Not everybody scored in the 90th percentile on their standardized testing. That's why it's the 90th percentile. If you scored that high, you probably went to Harvard, or Yale, or some other fine institution which grooms the financial leaders of tomorrow. People in the lower percentiles who are good looking go into television media, the ones who have a face for radio do their thing, and the rest of us blog. There's just not enough smart people to go around. It's not the Media's fault...how could you explain Calculus to a four year old when you yourself couldn't grasp fractions?

In fact, maybe there are people smart enough out there, but they have been too busy making money. So busy in fact that they couldn't pause long enough to realize that what they were doing would lead to economic collapse. Or maybe they were really smart and figured out that all of the other people who went to Harvard and Yale but had family money and went into Politics would write a $700 Billion government check. The first group, the money-makers, looked at all the risks and contingencies. In fact, they analyzed, they ruminated, they ran what-if scenarios, and ultimately, they knew their classmates would write that check.

What about holding indivduals accountable for their actions? I am not talking about criminally liable, I am talking about financially liable. I am talking about all those too stupid or too bold or both to realize that they stuck themselves in a place they shouldn't be. Why should we, the taxpayer, subsidize stupidity of people who borrowed more than they could ever repay? Why not let it collapse, re-value, go through a market-correction, and let some good old fashioned natural selection financially trim some of the fat.

Pretty hard & cold I know. But what happens after you spend the $700 Billion to bail out the homeowners, the financiers, the insurance companies, the credit card holders and the rest of the motley crew? Has any learning taken place?

Yes there has been some learning. They learned that it doesn't matter what I do, Uncle Sam will take care of me. And so they'll charge ahead, literally, leveraging everything again, and create a bigger fiasco than before. Meanwhile, the government will slap so much regulation on Wall Street that it will be impossible for you and I to ever realize any kind of return out of the market.

I don't think you can fight it...there are too many stupid people and too many willing to subsidize the stupidity and hamper the capitalist engine along the way. So, I just want to know, where do I line up and where do I sign to turn over my mortgage and my credit card debt to the government so I can start over too.

Nobama '08

'Nuff Said.

Well maybe not. In general, as a rule, I don't care for politics, or politicians. Every 4 years I go to the polls asking myself if these 2 clowns are the best we have to offer up? The question is of course, no. These are the best 2 clowns that had enough money and connections to make it through the political process and be nominated for President of the United States, and leader of the Free World. I have a feeling there is some dude sitting in a cabin in Idaho or Montana, that would make a fantastic president, but he doesn't have the millions required to run a campaign.

I carry a strong suspicion that the Republicans and Democrats are playing the public to keep themselves elected for life. How many Representatives or Senators take themselves out of the game after 4 years and go back to being productive members of society? Maybe more than I am aware of, but in general, it seems politics is a lifelong avocation.

In fact, I am so suspicious, I imagine back in the day, the likes of Ted Kennedy and Newt Gingrich get together in some Georgetown bar and decide which elements of society they will patronize in order to get elected and stay elected. Newt decided to take anti-abortion and Teddy took Pro-Choice. Teddy wanted the black vote, so Newt took the whites. Teddy took on the mantle of tax and spend while Newt decided espouse Reaganomics. Etcetera Etcetera, Ad Nauseum. Even now, I am sure Nancy Pelosi sits down with someone and divvies up the country's votes.

When Gore was running against George W., I asked myself who I would rather hang out with. In addition to agreeing with some of what he was about, Bush was the Lesser of Two Evils. At least you had the sense he would kick ass when needed, and wouldn't back down. Texas is always better than Tennessee anyways. A lot of Texans trace their lineage to people who had the good sense to migrate out of Tennessee in the first place.

Gore is a tool. He is also apparently unstable. All the pot heads I knew years ago didn't handle stress very well, and Gore was no exception. I just googled images for a photo that came out after his post hanging-chad-election meltdown. Couldn't find it after a 30-second ADD search, but he looked like a mountain man that had been raped in prison. Not the kind of guy to be running the country. At least the terrorists are scared of Dubya, even if he's not a great public speaker. Who cares anyways, we all probably sound stupid in Arabic.

Remember the Mother of All Battles boast by Saddam? He sounded like a moron in English, but I bet it was a pretty scary statement in Arabic. Just something lost in translation. All it did for us was give birth to the MOAB-Mother of All Bombs, and we know what happened to Smack-Talking Saddam.

Anyhoo, back on point...Gore was RAISED to be president. His dad was a Senator from Tennessee. Gore is what most people refer to as a Legacy, like Flounder in the movie Animal House. Based on what I can tell, Gore was a pot-smoking fun-loving college student with a girlfriend named Tipper. Word is they weren't exactly saints back in the day. Then they straightened up, got respectable, and then rose to political stardom. Gore then lost the election, and went off the deep-end for a few weeks, emerging in his caveman disguise. Remember too that he claimed to have invented the Internet. Now he is jetting around the world, crusading against global warming, leaving perhaps the largest carbon footprint of anyone on the planet.

For me, I say Nobama '08 because Obama is More Gore. He has been raised, groomed, and prepped for the Presidency with no experience to boot, so he is worse than Gore. Media darling, sound bites, slick talking, and I have to admit, a heck of a speech giver. He has the Clinton-esque ability to tell you something you can't stand to hear, yet he charms you into listening- a gift indeed. Obama is hailed as a savior, and propped up by the Democratic party as the panacea to all things Bush & Cheney which have ruined this country (if you believe it), but at least Gore had been in the system a while. Gore was like an automaton with programming for every scenario, only he had no program for losing the election he was supposed to win. Gore was predictable, but thank God it was Bush in charge to react to the 9-11 Attack. Lord only knows what would have happened with Gore in office. We probably would have seen Caveman Gore. However, we have no idea what Mr. Obama would do in a crisis or national emergency or God-forbid an attack that surpasses Pearl Harbor and 9-11. He has said he would open up dialogue. I don't want dialogue, I want someone that would open up a whole case of whoop-ass. It makes our enemies think twice about trying to poke us in the eye, or worse. Say what you will, but 9-11 was a direct cause-effect of weak US policy towards terrorist activity and attacks in the previous 8 years leading up to the election of 2000.

People with no experience in leadership scare the crap out of me. Forget that I disagree with Obama on the whole socialism issue and taxation. If you want all that, there are lots of countries in Europe to choose from and Canada is real close. Forget also that I disagree with Obama on just about every other issue too, and I think he would say anything to get elected, catering the message to each audience he addresses. If he deigned to try and personally convince me to vote for him, he would probably wax eloquent on quail hunting, extol the virtues of youth football, and tell me what an all-around great guy I am and that he wants the same things I do.

And true, there are some things I don't like about McCain. but if anything, the President is the Executive and Commander-In-Chief and if that's what the President is supposed to be , then in my opinion, McCain is the man for the job. Barack Hussein Obama as Commander-In-Chief does not make me sleep well at night and feel good about my children's future on this planet. There are a lot of people that don't like the United States, and a fair amount of them are clamoring for Obama. Some of them live here in the US. For me, this time, its a clearer choice.

And if not enough people see it my way, Plan B is to move to Mexico where there are tons of quail and a little cash goes a long way.

PS I am so, so glad that Cheney is not running, because if he was, there is no wrath like that reserved for a man that shoots another bird hunter.

Going Out On My Own

Well, I've finally done it...

The corporation I work for offered some voluntary packages a while back. In fact, this is the most recent voluntary package in a series of many. Some were immediately post-9/11, others along the way, preceding a corporate bankruptcy. I lived through all of this for ten years, and this is the first time I seriously considered a "package".

Being what most people would consider middle-aged I guess, with a mortgage, wife, 3 kids, 4 dogs and all that goes on with those things, I would expect most people would think I was nuts for quitting my job, however, almost to a person, everyone has wished me well and expressed good thoughts on my potential future success. All except 3 people, 2 of those being my parents who I am sure were hyper ventilating and thinking of how much money I would ask them for in 3 months...

I have always wanted to do this. I thought that at some point in my life, I would invent something, open a small firm to market or manufacture it, and be an Entrepreneur. As it stands, I have never invented anything to my knowledge, but I have built up a base of experience, contacts and a little knowledge which makes an opportunity for me to become a consultant.

I am officially jacked sideways about the opportunity to be my own boss, that my success or failure rests squarely on my shoulders and not some Black Box that is a modern American Corporation. The idea is a little daunting, but with all the positive reception I have gotten I am not too apprehensive. Granted, positive response doesn't pay the bills, but the couple contracts that are currently either signed or about to be inked, coupled with the severance package, make a unique opportunity to start a business...

My thought process involved a lot of talking with my wife. We calculated when we would actually starve to death. It was nice to hear her say she trusted me. I thought of the severance package as a Small Business Grant. I also talked to a lot of folks on the "outside". There were a lot of positive conversations, and a few that resulted in actual work. I now have several contracts lined up that will likely lead to additional work. There are a few more contacts that have something, but nothing definite yet. I figure that if one contact in 100 results in work, then I will be in good shape.

I have never considered any of the packages before now. For me the watershed moment was standing in the hall discussing the newly announced package with a colleague, and then noticing the poster on the wall celebrating profit sharing that had just occurred from the First Quarter 2008. The date on the poster was a month to the day prior. I thought to myself, how can we go from bankruptcy, to profit sharing, to cutting and taking losses again in such a short span. I resolved I didn't have a another 3-5 year down cycle in me. I decided to leap out into the unknown.

So here I am. Wish me luck, the light is green and I have stepped in the door, about to jump into the night. Of course, I think there is a parachute, and I have a reasonable idea of where I want to land. I think that with this, and a lot of hard work, we might just make this fly.

The Politically Incorrect Armchair Economist

The text below was a rambling response to a forwarded email. The gist of the email chain was the sorry state of the economy right now, the dollar, and the real-estate market. Some names have been changed or substituted to protect the hapless. Most of this is tongue in cheek, but I get cranked up towards the end. I think my politics probably defy explanation and I likely don't fit the ideal of any of the political parties currently in existence.


Short-term, Diversify your portfolio and buy Euros on the foreign exchange. The 1.45 vs. 1.57 quoted below is an 8.2% increase in one month CPI last month was flat.

If you had placed the family fortune in currency futures you'd be able to spend the summer in the South of France.

NAFTA has caused US Dollars to flee from our shores along with the industrial base. Buy American.

How much US currency passes into the hands of illegals to be sent home south of the border. Billions are flooding into Mexico and beyond never to return. The US is a service provided, no longer an industrial giant. The nouveau riche of these now developing "3rd World" countries are becoming the consumer that Americans were in the 1950's. The expatriated US dollars are fueling foreign economies that produce durable goods. China, Asia, Latin America will be laughing all the way to the bank.


What propelled the US to its former glory, now fading? Defeat and destruction of the rest of the industrial world in WW2 coupled with factories facing the prospect of closing doors or producing consumer products. The Military-Industrial complex no longer drives a large portion of our economy. The military is smaller and supposedly more fiscally responsible, although we are as actively engaged as we were in the 60's. Japan's post-war star fades on their bizarre banking. We may be teetering on the brink as well without some fundamental changes.

Our enemies are destroying from within. They cannot defeat the might of the US Military in a stand up fight, but they can crumble the infrastructure and ruin the economy. Until the thieving and give-aways are stopped, our slide will continue. Policies need to change. Become the tyrant the rest of the world blames us for being anyways.

As far as housing, Foreign Investment in US real estate will ultimately buoy prices in the US market.

Absent Panic, the housing market will improve over the course of several years and the sub-standard mortgage crisis will stabilize. As long as sensible growth replaces the euphoria that got us into this mess in the first place, we should be OK in 5-10 years.

Meanwhile, the war in Iraq is costing 10+ Billion a month. Federalize the oil producing area of Iraq until the war debt is paid off and subsidize US oil production with cut rate oil. Prices will drop for the consumer, but the big oil companies can preserve their margin and still make BILLIONS. No one will do it because they don't have the brass ones-but that's what needs to happen. If others accuse us of acting like an empire then we ought to benefit from being an empire.

To be a benevolent tyrant, promise a revenue share to the Iraqis IF they can get themselves together on self-governance, national security and domestic peace instead of acting like a bunch of hooligans and thugs. F the Russians, F the Chinese, and F Mother-Effin OPEC. Chavez can lump it. If the Chinese get too froggy, appease them with cheap oil or drop another round of Bird Flu and SARS on them.

Tax the oil companies to produce cost-effective oil alternatives by 2020 because only with independence from foreign oil will we be able to be self-determinant and truly powerful again. The rest of the world will have to follow because the petroleum resources will run out and by 2040 we can be selling them first generation oil-free technology and keep them beholden to us for round two.

20 Years of Turkey Hunting

If there's anything I like as much as quail, its spring gobbler hunting.

I am a non-committal deer hunter these days. I used to deer hunt literally non-stop. I think this is what makes me crave deer hunting less now. We would hunt from before sun-up to after sun-down, staying on stand all but maybe 1 hour of the day. We killed a lot of deer, and really killed my enthusiasm for it too. Sitting 15 or 20 feet up in a tree in 30 degree weather for six or seven hours straight tends to dampen your ardor for just about anything, including deer hunting. When I was younger, it was a test of will power. Now, I am purely disinterested. The last deer hunt I went on was to take my boys on their first. This was a great pleasure, and hints that one day the fire will return. But for now, you can have your deer hunting. I'll take the turkeys, thank you very much.

For me, like for so many other poor unfortunate souls, turkey hunting is like an obsession. Once turkey season starts, I really can't think of much else. Yard work goes untended. My marital bliss deteriorates-so much so it doesn't really get fully repaired till deer season arrives. I stumble bleary eyed though the Spring-others attribute it I am sure to the new baby or pollen. Only I know the truth-waking up to meet the crack of day instead of sleeping in on Saturday morning after a long week of work.

I guess that I am somewhat of a purist. For me, the ultimate is the early morning ritual of gobblers on the roost. I know you can kill turkeys at later parts of the day, but for me, the waking of the woods is a magical time, and it revitalizes me. When I sit on a deer stand all the pressures of life creep into my brain, haunting my time in the woods. When I am standing on some high point in the dark, listening to whippoorwills and other early morning birds, waiting for that first gobble, I feel completely free. When that first bird sounds off, proclaiming his majesty to all of nature, it sends a thrill through me every time-just like a covey rise.

This morning, March 22nd, was the opening day in Georgia. I have passed 20 seasons hunting turkeys in my home state. I have hunted both public land and private. I have hunted morning, mid-day and afternoons. I have called up turkeys in all manner of places and times, using a variety of calls. Like most turkey hunters, I have called up far more birds than I have killed. Some guys have the knack to drop the hammer on a gobbler every time they get one in range. Not me-Murphy is a constant companion when I am in the turkey woods.

I think I remember more vividly the birds that gave me the slip. There was a gobbler that came running his goofy side to side gait up the little woods road to the old well. With every stride his paint-brush beard swayed ponderously. He stopped next to an ancient pine, stuck his head out and gobbled so loud it felt like it shook my hair. He had stopped short looking at my decoy. He gobbled over and over again, going into a half-strut and gobbling at my decoy which sat there motionless and unimpressed. He puffed up into a strut, showing off for my frigid female. She remained passionless. He finally got fed up and side-slipped around me, then disappeared behind some brush. The whole time I had a bead on him, but thought he was beyond effective range. After he'd been gone a while, I walked over to where he'd put on the show and was amazed and shocked to realize it was less than 30 yards. It had all happened so fast I hadn't gotten a good judge of the range.

Another time in the mid-day I had been sitting on a ridge top calling down into a bottom. A hen had come up to investigate me and given me a valuable hen talk lesson. I was dozing off in the warm sun. Some of the best sleep I've had was on the forest floor during turkey season after an early rise. Suddenly I heard a bird gobbling on the loading deck behind and below me. I flipped my position around on the same tree and faced up-hill. The lip of the ridge and a little logging road was 15 yards away and concealed the bird. He seemed like he was gobbling in the loading deck and getting no closer. I made the command decision to belly crawl up to the lip of the road where there was a berm formed by a dozer for a better look. I froze half-way there when I heard him stepping in the leaves on the road. He must have heard me GI-crawling through the leaves and thought it was the hen he'd heard. I was prone with my shotgun up, ready to fire-but then I inspected the berm a couple of yards to my front. I still couldn't see the tom, but I could see all kinds of rocks in that berm. Then the tip of a white skull-cap appeared above the berm, followed by a blue head and keen eyes, then the blood red neck and wattles. I had my shotgun bead on the kill zone, but then my mind flashed to all those rocks in that berm-what if stray pellets hit those rocks and richoted back? I decided to wait for the bird to move to the left or right of the berm. He peered over the edge, seeming to look past me, down into the wide open oak bottom below us. There was no hen in sight and rather than go right or left, he made an about face and walked away. To add insult to injury, he gobbled one more time down on the loading deck and then departed for parts unknown. I had lain patiently awaiting him to come back, and then eased up to the berm when I heard him gobble from the loading deck, but once I could spy from the top of the berm, he was gone.

That story happened on public land, national forest land, during Spring Break when I was in college. All my friends thought I was nuts, spending the week in the woods chasing turkeys rather than chasing bikinis on the beach. But, they'd come back, telling stories of getting arrested and zip tied by the cops and I'd just sit quietly and listened and wouldn't have traded my stories for one of theirs.

That was almost 20 years ago, and today is the anniversary. My future Father-In-Law took pity on me and introduced me to the turkey woods, ruining me for life and much to the chagrin of his daughter. We hunted a lot, and I missed a lot of sleep but it was all worth it. We started out on the Oconee National Forest down close to Lake Jackson. We called in a lot of turkeys, but I never killed one on public land, even to this day. My first turkey came a few years later on a private lease and it was a text book hunt. Matter of fact, I have killed all my turkeys within the first hour of daylight. I have called up a lot more after that, just never connected. I think because I've never connected on one in my old haunt, I keep going back.

Last year I took a good friend from out west on his first Eastern gobbler hunt. He'd killed turkeys before, in Texas with a rifle. I assured him this was like kissing your sister compared to spring gobbler hunting. We heard two different gobblers at daylight. I asked him which one he wanted to chase & he said it was my choice. I picked the one that seemed to be in a more familiar place & we jogged off to get him as he sounded about a half-mile distant. We got closer and set-up in a pretty oak hillside bordered by a creek. I wanted him to get the shot and made sure the set-up was such that he had a high probability to have the gobbler appear on his front. That bird continued to gobble and double gobble on the roost. He gobbled so much I worried someone else would hear him and maybe spoil the hunt. Then when I called I could tell he was on the ground-I whispered here he comes. The bird cut me off when I called and I turned to my friend and told him this bird really wants to get killed. He came closer and closer, gobbling every time I called. I whispered "Get ready, he's coming". The bird was within 100 yards of us by the sound of him, but we still hadn't spotted him. We were on a little slope with some very mature oaks and little ravines here and there. About 60 yards to my left was a screen of brush. Then, by the sound of him the bird had veered to my left, away from the designated shooter. We started arguing over who was going to take the shot. I insisted he do it as my guest and he finally relented. Then I saw the bird coming and whispered to my friend to get ready. He tried to tell me to take the shot. The bird was hidden by a giant oak trunk. I had my gun on the trunk, but was hoping the bird would swing around so my guest could take his first Eastern. Then, the bird moved to the left of the trunk, placing me in the line of fire. I would have to take the shot or wait for him to move either further behind us or down in front more. I waited. The gobbler got suspicious, like they always do when they see wide open woods with no hen. He putted a few times, then took off behind us like a track star. There was no opportunity to shoot for my friend. Once out of sight, the bird gobbled at us a couple of times, then moved off. We tried to call him back, but to no avail-he'd had enough of invisible hens for one morning.

Despite the fact we didn't get a bird, this is one of my most memorable hunts. I was able to spend a beautiful morning in the woods with a great friend and we got outsmarted by a bird with a brain the size of a walnut. What could be better?

So, I celebrated my 20 year turkey anniversary this morning. I hunted the same spot. I heard a gobbler a few times on the way in...down close to the creek. But I was intent to get to the same spot. He answered a crow call, but not my hen calls. Maybe its still a little too early. I came out, once again, with no bird. But I enjoyed the solitude and the beauty immensely. The air was clean and cool, the walk was good, and I heard a gobbler.

I had promised my wife I'd be back before noon. I got out early, and drove some of the forest service roads I've hunted up and down over the years. I though to myself that now I am "that guy". The one I used to wonder why he drove up and down the roads when turkeys were just about to get cranked up again at ten-thirty or eleven after their hens have left them. But like I said, I'm a purist and I'd rather get one at daylight-plus I'd promised to be back. Now I know why that guy drove out so early-he probably had a wife and three small kids and work to do before everyone comes over to the house for Easter. So, as I passed each car or truck parked at an old logging road, I thought to myself, enjoy it-I've had my time like your having yours now. My time is different now, but I wouldn't have it any other way. My kids were delighted to see me and my wife tried to act put out with me for leaving her and going hunting, but that's an act she's been putting on since before we were married, since I started turkey hunting, twenty years ago this day.