You Are All Good For Something

Who Has Highest State Property Taxes

The Common Good

"imagine a situation where police protection or the fire department only responded to those who had resources to pay for those protections.

A commitment to the common good recognizes that the community as a whole benefits from these kinds of services for which everyone contributes a part.

It only takes a slight expansion of our imaginations to understand how other issues of the common good require a common commitment.

Public education is a good place to start. Those committed to the common good are not just interested in having their own children receive a quality education, but are equally interested in all children knowing how to read, do math and understand history. The whole community benefits from an educated citizenry." From Ethics Daily. Click here to read the full post.

Waiting Till The Last Minute

Government Spending GNP/GDP

True?

Computer Virus

Good Advice

Might Be True

Sign of The Times

Sad But True

Don't Trespass

New Weapon

Ruger is coming out with a new pistol in  honor of our lawmakers. 

It will be named the  “Congressman”.

It  doesn’t work and you can’t fire it

Wise Advice

A Science Test - How Will You Do?

Yearly Dementia Test

Our Yearly Dementia Test

It's that time of year for us to take our annual senior citizen test.
Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert. If you don't use it, you lose it!
Below is a very private way to gauge how your memory compares to the last test. Some may think it is too easy but the ones with memory problems may have difficulty.
Take the test presented here to determine if you're losing it or not.
The spaces below are so you don't see the answers until you've made your answer.
OK, relax, clear your mind and begin.



1. What do you put in a toaster?















Answer:  'bread.'  If you said 'toast' give up now and do something else..
Try not to hurt yourself.
If you said, bread, go to Question 2.





2.  Say 'silk' five times. Now spell 'silk.' What do cows drink?














Answer: Cows drink water. If you said 'milk,' don't attempt the next question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat. Content yourself with reading more appropriate literature such as Auto World.
However, if you said 'water', proceed to question 3.







3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a green house made from?







Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass.  If you said 'green bricks,' why are you still reading these???  If you said 'glass,' go on to Question 4.







4.  Without using a calculator - You are driving a bus from  London  to
Milford Haven in  Wales  .   In  London  , 17 people get on the bus.
In  Reading  , 6 people get off the bus and 9 people get on.
In  Swindon , 2 people get off and 4 get on.
In  Cardiff  , 11 people get off and 16 people get on.
In  Swansea  , 3 people get off and 5 people get on.
In Carmathen, 6 people get off and 3 get on.
You then arrive at Milford Haven   ..








Without scrolling back to review, how old is the bus driver?

















Answer: Oh, for crying out loud!
Don't you remember your own age?
It was YOU driving the bus!!

If you pass this along to your friends, pray they do better than you.

PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions!!

Having A Bad Day At Work?

Want To Look Stupid? Follow the Instructions

Getting Older

The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.      - Plato

 

 

 

The Importance of walking Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $2,000 per month. My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he's 97 years old and we have no idea where the hell he is. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.  The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing...  I joined a health club last year, spent about 250 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there! Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.  I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them. The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, he looks good doesn't he.' If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country. I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years,....... just getting over the hill.  We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. AND Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a pub with a Happy Hour and by the time I leave, I look just fine. You could run this over to your friends But just e-mail it to them! It will save you the walk!

1950 Cool Aid Ad

China's Ghost Cities

From America Blog:

What You Scatter

I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily apprising a basket of freshly picked green peas.   I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes.   Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller (the store owner) and the ragged boy next to me.   'Hello Barry, how are you today?'  'H'lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas. They sure look good.'    'They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?'   'Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time.'   'Good. Anything I can help you with?'    'No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas.'   'Would you like to take some home?' Asked Mr. Miller.    'No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with.'   'Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?'   'All I got's my prize marble here.'   'Is that right? Let me see it' said Miller.   'Here 'tis. She's a dandy.'   'I can see that. Hmm mmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?' the store owner asked.   'Not zackley but almost.'   'Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble'. Mr. Miller told the boy.   'Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.'   Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me.    With a smile she said, 'There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever.   When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, when they come on their next trip to the store.'    I left the store smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado, but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering for marbles.    Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died. They were having his visitation that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them. Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.   Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts... All very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband's casket.   Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.    Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and reminded her of the story from those many years ago and what she had told me about her husband's bartering for marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.    'Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about.   They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim 'traded' them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size... They came to pay their debt.'   'We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,' she confided, 'but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho.'    With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.    The Moral:    We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath.    IT'S NOT WHAT YOU GATHER, BUT WHAT YOU SCATTER THAT TELLS WHAT KIND OF LIFE YOU HAVE LIVED!

ED! 

Zero Deficit Line

Girls to Boys

Interest in Charlie

A Story About Looking Past Limits

The News You Don't Find On Cable

Think About It

An Interesting Idea on Saving Power

AC or DC? from Nextek Power on Vimeo.

Ever Seen A Carousel Race?

A Discussion on How To Improve Medical Care

You Just Thought Fishing Shows Were Easy

Nature's Most Perfect Food?????

An interesting post from Hushpuppy Nation. This is the part I like the best, "nothing will mark someone as a barbecue novice and possible Yankee spy quicker than referring to a grill as a barbecue or using the term in any connotation when referring to cooking hamburgers or hot dogs"

Barbecue: Nature’s Most Perfect Food

April 22, 2011

An excerpt from An Irresistible History of Southern Food, copyright 2011by Rick McDaniel

Barbecue: Nature’s Most Perfect Food

Barbecue is one of the South’s most beloved foods and has long played an important role in the foodways of the region.

As much as we Southerners love our country ham, tenderloin biscuits and smothered pork chops, we will run over them all to get to a plate of barbecue. It is a subject that is guaranteed to get two people from different parts of the South into a spirited discussion ending in either a lifelong friendship or a fistfight.

Almost everywhere in the region, but especially in North Carolina, barbecue is spoken of in the reverential tone usually reserved for ’65 Mustang convertibles, large bass that slipped the line and the cheerleader everyone was in love with in high school.

The word barbecue more than likely entered the English language via the Spanish, who observed native people in the West Indies using a method of slowly cooking meat over coals they called barbacoa. Native Americans were cooking meat over coals using essentially the same method as the West Indian peoples, and the English settlers who set up shop in the South were soon happily cooking pigs over hot coals.

The typical method for barbecuing a hog was to dig a pit or trench and build a hardwood fire in it. After the fire had burned down to coals, the hog was placed on poles or a sheet of corrugated iron laid across the trench. Barbecue made by this method came to be known as “pit cooked,” and the term is still in use today. Even in modern barbecue restaurants where the hole in the ground has been replaced with concrete block cookers, they are still called pits, and the person who is the head cook is called the pit master or pit boss.

In the modern South, the word barbecue is most often used as a noun, as in a plate of barbecue. It is rarely used as a verb, as in “we barbecued a pig.” Most people who do so simply say they cooked a pig, with the cooking method implied. In a final note on usage, nothing will mark someone as a barbecue novice and possible Yankee spy quicker than referring to a grill as a barbecue or using the term in any connotation when referring to cooking hamburgers or hot dogs.

50 Years Ago This Was a Common Thing To See

Light Pollution has now taken this view away from most in the US:

Plains Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

Remember? You Probably Said It!

Comments made in the year 1955!

‘I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $10.00.‘

 

---

‘Have you seen the new cars coming out next year?  It won’t be long before $1,000.00 will only buy a used one.’   

 

  

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‘If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit; 20 cents a pack is ridiculous.‘

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‘Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 7 cents just to mail a letter.’

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‘If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.’

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‘When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage.’

---

‘I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more.  Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in ‘GONE WITH THE WIND’, it seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it.’

 

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‘I read the other day where some scientist thinks it’s possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas.’

---

‘Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $50,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the President.‘

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‘I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric.  They are even making electric typewriters now.‘

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‘It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays.  I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.‘

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‘It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.’

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‘I’m afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.’

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‘Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes.  I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to government.’

 

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‘The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.’

 

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‘There is no sense going on short trips anymore for a weekend.  It costs nearly $2.00 a night to stay in a hotel.’

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‘No one can afford to be sick anymore.  At $15.00 a day in the hospital, it’s too rich for my blood.’

 

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‘If they think I’ll pay 30 cents for a hair cut, forget it.’