Idiots in the government

Sometimes I look at the world and go huh? one of those times was just a few days ago. i was reading the AP news (cause i like to see what's not making the headlines) and that lead me to reading a few political blogs. both sides of the isle. Good god the folks are total idiots!
A few points off the top of my head.

1. it is not the federal governments job to handle states problems! did you folks in the big shiny halls never bloody read the section on state rights? if those guys would stop expecting the feds to bail them out all the time the fed would not have its fingers in all the pies. New Orleans is a fine example. its not the federal governments job to rebuild the place or to provide the money to do so. that responsibility rests firmly on the state. why then is federal money going into the effort? the same goes with the rest of the gulf states. what do the populations in the states pay state taxes for?

2.  The federal taxes are to be used for things that benefit the entire country. what part of the entire country is hard to understand? some little town in rural oregon should not even be mentioned in any debate on where the money goes cause unless it is producing a thing that is shared out to every person in every state it is not benefitting the whole. the decision to close a forest service office is not a national problem. Its is Oregon's problem. federal budgets should not be blocked because 10 people are going to lose jobs.

3. state taxes are to be used for state programs. and the companies in that state can bloody well pay a fair share. this is my personal number one gripe companies get tax breaks to set up in a state. fine and dandy but the state needs to be able to make that money up someplace other than folks making min wage.  those folks that have money need to be taxed by the state accordingly not as is done today let off by loop holes. when my taxes take a third of my pay i expect the guy bringing in 500.000 a year to be paying a the equivalent. I am sure that a person can be damn comfy on 200.000 a year.
I dont make a big deal of it but i tell you taxing 10 cents on every dollar without exception would bloody well bring in some money and the feds could stay in fed land.

4. the population of the country has given the feds our freedoms. This is something the states should be guarding against but as usual have failed to see. it seems that as soon as a senator or congressmen gets to the big shiny halls they are willing to give the state population up for a pat on the back or a scrap of power.

IMO it is time the states do the job mandated instead of letting uncle sam and some seat warmer in the oval office make the decisions. we should not even be talking federal budget and pork, federal program cuts for poor folks (myself included), yadda yadda. We should be looking at the state to make these things happen. why the heck is there a federal program to help the homeless in Iowa? that is not the feds job its Iowa's and for damn sure its time Iowa dealt with it on its own dime.

This is not to say every person for them selves its to say that if it doesn't affect the whole country (Iowa's homeless) then it is not a federal problem. not to mention if the states dealt with the homeless problem there would not be a homeless problem in the first place.
programs like single payer health care, interstate highways, emergency services, clean water, multinational business, the power grid Etc. are the Provence of the feds not taking care of individuals with a couple of exceptions.

social security (we all paid in and if it was not touched it would be our retirements. the Fed has never paid back the money it took out of the SS accounts. this was skimming money that does not belong to the fed and those that did it/are doing it should be in court being sued and jailed.
 military vets  have been promised things as is traditional for risking life and limb to protect the commonwealth this is a service that has value long past the active duty part of the commitment. folks seem to think that you stop being in the military when you get discharged. however i dont recall ever being relived of my oath. I'll bet no vet can remember being relived of that oath. this makes it pretty hard to be out of the military. We vets are the line of defense that would form if we where attacked. its our role and we cant ever put it down. the paltry reward for this is our medical care, schooling, and a couple of paltry loans we can get (sometimes). used to be a DD214 was as good as a degree because you where trusted with lives,  equipment and training way beyond that of most civilian jobs. these days an honorable discharge is a piece of toilet paper. it means nothing in the job market and in some cases hurts your chances.

both parties pay face to these two things but they sure as heck aint going to do anything good about them. the folks up in the big shiny halls think of them as money being spent badly. this of course is due to most of them being silver spoon fed on the sweat of those old folks and vets.

again if the fed and state governments did the job they should be doing we would not be in the mess we are in. bank regulations are a federal job, the stock market should be a federal job, those things that affect us all are the fed jobs. those things that affect a state are the states jobs this includes the people in the state.  the state needs to get off the nut and resume doing the job it was created to do. currently what we seem to have is one huge state instead of a republic composed self governing states.

guess this is what you get when the idiots are in charge; and the idiots that vote are content to let all the decisions  be made in their name by power hungry idiots. Make your states take back the power its the only way to get the country back to its former promise.  get out into the streets think what's best for all, make rational decisions based on your own research, question the pork spending by asking if it benefits the whole of the country, make your state tax its population fairly, make the state take care of its population instead of handing that responsibility off to the feds. Read what Eisenhower said and take it to heart because his words have come true; maybe just maybe we can turn things around if we try.

Spindoctors

Doctors are supposed to fix the broken bits.
 ya ever notice spin-doctors never  fix anything?
they just make it worse over time.

no wonder big business and politics love them.

Pirates in natural building

Erica went to our local natural building store yesterday to buy some supplies for this weekends work shop.
We dont normally buy stuff from this place for our work but some speciality items for work shops you just need top get. Mica, pigments, Etc. make a delightful additive to plasters and are hard to get unless you take a run to the mountains and find it.

any how the pigments dont cost much. However mica is running $15 dollars for about a cup and $99 dollars a bag and they sell cob mix in a 5 gal bucket for around $100.

 We can order a 50 lb bag of mica for $10 plus shipping and a gallon of milk paint costs around $7  a gallon for all the ingredients Cob cost almost nothing if you have clay in your subsoil. we got 3 yards of washed mason sand at $35 a yard and straw at $3 a bale.

I can understand making a living but those prices are bloody astronomical. this is the kind of thing that makes natural building look bad.  folks cant afford our work shops but will still pay this kind of price for a freeking gallon of paint! WTF is this some kind of joke. our damn work shops cost nothing in comparison to this boutique bull shit.... grrrr pisses me off when some jackass decides to make the cheap into a unreachable goal so some cash cow can feel superior cause he bought his cob mix in a bucket.

business stuff

I am surly not cut from the same mold as those businessmen of the past.
1. I dont know how much the information i have is worth.
2. I dont want to work with folks who are assholes.

in regards to number two I would go so far as to say i would rather not get money from them cause it to is tainted with the same assholyness  and i will have to handle it; perhaps catching the disease.

Erica is much better than I at dealing with these people, she talks to them kindly and calmly and tries to build bridges with them. I think we should leave the river between us and build fortifications to ensure those folks feel unwelcome and never visit us again.

All this non violence gets on my nerves. I figure some ass is being rude and boorish he should be heading home with his teeth in his hat. Thats unacceptable behavior on shore. these days folks seem to think they have the right to freely express themselves and not suffer the consequences.

the ultimate freedom is to take full responsibility for your actions this includes the consequences. Pity this country has forgotten that last bit. A few of these assholes among us might learn some manners after spending a few years eating hamburgers through a straw.
its a bit of a rant

lap boat

so we head up to seattle today to look at the lap boat and make a decision. time flies when your having fun i guess. the boats name is Terra Nova. its a fitting name for what we have been planning. a new land indeed.

how to find a business name

well your guess is as good as mine. how do we find a business name that encompasses what we do and love yet is still catchy enough that folks will remember it? since much of what we do is teach hands on skills, appropriate tech and permiculture; what words do we use to describe those things simply and catchy?  anyone have ideas? i would suggest looking at our web site for ideas but thats kinda self promotion to my mind and thats not the point.

A big idea and a big boat

Erica and I finally have a sort of plan for our build. Probably not to exciting to those of you building Wharram's cause after a year of noodeling we have decided on a richard woods design. 

here goes.

Since we are teachers of hands on skills we have decided to teach a (12 months) year of high school program in boat building. the program will fulfill all the criteria for a year of high school including all the academic requirements.

the build will be (hopefully if enrollment and grants/donations can be found) a 40 foot Rhea. 

The decision on the boat was made for safety, weather and space considerations. also the type of missions the boat will be used for after/between the use in our teaching with trackers NW.

the initial mission for the program is to teach kids hands on boat building and curriculum directly related to the task at hand. After the boat is built it will become our home, a platform for kids hands on education and the second part of its mission will begin. 

since we teach hands on all of the systems on the boat will be appropriate technology  with only a few exceptions. this means that the systems like hot water heaters, generators, cooking facilities, blocks, sails, davits, electric motors, Etc. will be made from parts available in the waste stream for most countries. the boat it's self is as efficient of materials as we can find in our local area. instead of holding tanks for black water we plan on an insinolet and we will try to setup a grey water system that can recycle the water (probably either a steam distillation system or a reverse osmosis system) at his point the project will change its name from the year of high school big boat build to the permiculture life boat project.

the mission from this point will be an aid boat for coast disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, typhoons, and hurricanes.  We will concentrate on those areas largely ignored by traditional aid providers; the outlying areas where food and materials are produced. our aim is to have a mobile medical and rebuilding center. that can get into shallow water and provide appropriate tech for rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and housing as quickly as possible with the local materials. the cost to the communities that choose to take it on; will be to build another boat with the appropriate tech and help other communities in need.  since we cant be every where the boat will also be used as a ocean research platform in the off season. 

thanks go to Richard woods who gave permission for these pic's

this has been my dream thirty years in the making its gone through many revisions to pare it down to the essence of good design and care for the ocean's and coasts i love so much. thanks for reading and we will be keeping this page up dated as we go along.