Politics, It's like a Country Road

Have you ever noticed that as you drive along down a winding country road, that the road starts to become a very good analogy of what politics is all about? As in politics, it has a center, left, and right. Now as you go along that road, you can veer a little to the left or right, or you can drive right off the edge into pure hate and anarchy. Dept. of Transportation people just label their road with the names Left and Right and you should stay in your lane. In politics though, we have taken to calling OUR side of the road, "Conservative", and the OTHER guys call theirs, "Liberal". Now just as in when you are driving your car along this road, if you maintain a steady course, you usually arrive at your destination in good order. But you can by inattention or intention, veer off the road by a little or a lot. The degree of variance really does determine what is to become of you, whether as a driver or a person. Will you go 'over the edge' too the right and become a Neo-Nazi or someone of that ilk? Or will you completely lose your mind, and for some reason cross that painted double line into the LEFT lane? And have you ever noticed that those people, once they get in that lane, THINK that they are doing just fine, even though they are going in the wrong direction! I'm not to sure what name attaches to those of the "far lefty persuasion" that are driving along in the bushes on their side of the road, but whatever the name is, it should have something that Identifies them too us all, so that we can avoid them like the plague. After watching the Judge Roberts confirmation hearings, I came away again, wondering if there were really that many STUPID people living in Mass.! How can they keep electing that buffoon that sat there looking like a chimpmunk, as he rails against a MAN with more intelligence in his little finger than Teddy has in his whole body, and who makes Teddy, look like he just recently descended out of the trees? A couple of million years too late I might add. Some one else surely has to write down his questions for him to ask, because he couldn't come up with one on his own if it didn't have the word "abortion" in it. That was virtually the whole line of questioning that he brought with him to the hearing. The guy is a laughing stock to every other thinking person in this country. Teddy, Why don't you just pack it in and go back to Hyannis and finish drinking yourself into oblivion so that we all can rest more comfortbly knowing that you are no longer a member of the United States Senate! You are a DISGRACE! GO HOME!! Oh PS: Careful of those bridges around Chappaquidic,(sp) They are a bitch! TIFN

Bringing Home Billions of Buck$$$!

So I understand now that there are about 1 million people who have lost their homes and or business down along the south coast. I guess after Monday, that number will probably go to triple the present one. I also read/heard that the federal govt. has committed $60 billion to those people alone. That doesn't include what ever money has come to them by way of private charities. That is all well and good and I don't begrudge one thin dime to them. But! Where is the money going to come from to pay out that 60 bil? Already there is talk that the prescription medicine handout from Medicare may be coming under attack. But that is another blog. I have a suggestion as to where it might come from. How about if the first thing we do is to kick the UN out of the US? Send it to france where they can support and administer it in their typically incompetent manner. That would get us a few billion. Next we really should withdraw from NATO and close all our bases in Europe and let those folks fend for themselves for a change. We have been holding their hands and wiping their asses for them long enough. They OPENLY hate us now, and make no bones about it. SO let them hold each other in a firm embrace while keeping a close eye on all the Islamofacists in their midsts that are about to bring down the life style and ideals they have lived with for decades. The mullahs are working over time to finish them off. By closing all those European bases we could keep another $150 billion for our own people. "Foreign Aid". There is a sad chapter in American history. It started out all well and good but over the years has been corrupted to the point that we now give "billions and billions", so Carl Sagan would have said, to countries that openly oppose us and our ideals and actively engage in acts that are a direct threat to our countries safety and well being. The number to put in here is beyond my understanding, but have read somewhere that is close to a Trillion with a "T" bucks! It is time for the Congress of these United States to take a good long unbiased look at all the money that we give away to these countries. Just stop it outright! Then go over each countries past use of the aid, and whether it was used against us in some way. If each applicant does not measure up, or live up, to a strict new set of rules, then they either don't get it to start with, or it gets summarily pulled if they are found to be playing hanky-panky with the money. It is time to stop trying to buy peoples good will with dollar bills. They take it all the while laughing up their sleeves at us. PROVE too us that you are worthy of Aid, and MAYBE some will be forthcoming. For a while! TIFN

New Town Hall

There was a Town Council meeting last evening and one of the topics was about the new building that is now under construction! Before the first bucket of cement has been poured, it came to light during the meeting that this building is already destined to join the other town building fiasco's. It seems as though the structure, before any bid request have gone out, is going to exceed the 1.7 million budgeted by a nice round 10%! What the hell is going on in the town hall? Is there ANYBODY there that has a clue about doing this sort of project and getting it right? Remember the Library, the School, and now the new Town Hall? There has to be someone in charge of these projects who knows his ass from a hole in the ground! It would behoove the Council to hire a Town Public Works director and do it now, if one can be found. Another thing that amazes me is that in this era of skyrocketing energy costs, that there has been NO attempt to do anything to mitigate those costs! There are lots of things that could be done. There are items that can be incorporated into the foundation that would warm the foundation from within, and radiate that heat into the interior space as well as upwards to the floor above. Electrical dump loads fed by a number of solar cells on the roof would do that job. Water circulated through pipes in the foundation and fed by solar water heating panels is another option. According to the August National Geographic magazine, there are still plenty of grants out there for new construction municipal buildings if the cities and towns are willing to go after them. Another option, and I know this will bring the anti-WECS lobby out in full force and throat, is the use of some sort of windpower. In that same issue of the NG magazine there was a study someone did that put forth the proposition that if every house in Americe had a 1 kilowatt wind generator attached, the oil imports to this country would diminish to virtually nothing. Denmark gets 75% of it's power from offshore WECS and more are planned, as it is for most of the other Scandinavian countries.
So getting back to the new town hall, I can't help wonder why there has been absolutely no attempt to do anything in this vein. Somewhere in the not to distant future as I've said before, our children and grandchildren are to reap the results of what we should have sown! A big NOTHING! Everyone seems to think that reducing energy consumption is passe and no big deal. Well after getting your last bill from BIPCO, that should have put a huge hole in your complacency blanket! But I will tell you one thing for sure, my electric bill was a couple hundred dollars less than most of yours because of that "ugly", "noisy", "monstrosity" in my front yard! Somewhere in your future you are going to have to reconcile the need to have electricty to make all your appliances run with your "need" to see the water, or the shore or the dips and swales in the country side. Maybe after all the people who got the WECS ordinance gutted, leave the Island because there is not enough juice to go around, we can return to some sort of rational thought when it comes to renewable energy of all kinds. Get and read that copy of the National Geographic and it just might give you a different mindset. TIFN BTW, turn off those uneeded lights in the evening and then go watch your meter turn a lot slower!

Will It Ever End?

There is a letter in the paper this week from a Dr.R M Wood in which he attempts to save us from ourselves again,as have countless others before him. How REALLY interested in us is he? He starts his letter like this. "Parting words for the Medical Center. My summer visits to Block Island have come to an end".That certainly sounds to me as if he has NO intentions of coming here again except maybe in the winter. So of course on the way out the door he takes a few "artfully created" parting shots at the people who live and work here. Apparently he feels that no one should be paid anything more than the minimum wage to do any job, be it menial or one that takes a great deal of skill. Where does he get the idea of a 'severence package'? There is none as far as a couple of the board members know. Just another unsubstantiated stab in the back. "This present system provides several, (1) "highly paid" administrator(s), (actually less than other people in the town who do similar work),with full benefit packages to do these tasks". His words. Oh yes he mentions free housing for the administrator, but "artfully neglects" to mention that housing is free to one physician, as has been the case for fifty ears or more and was part of the lure to get and hold a doctor. No problem there. The other, gets a $22k subsidy over and above salary to help pay for their housing.
Does anyone recall what has been going on in the town finance office since all or most of the billing and collection was "outsourced". Of course it is ALWAYS smarter and more cost efficient to pay someone else to do the job even when qualified people are already on board and able to do the job.
I was glad to hear that the only difference between a doctor and a hair stylist, is a Nurse and a different supply list. Maybe I'll go to the Beachcomber next time I get sick and see what happens.
I wonder if Dr. Wood has any clue as to why the Med Ctr was set up as it was in the very beginning? There must have been some very good and compelling reasons. Look into that please sir before you advocate ripping apart, what has served the people of this town, and thousands of visitors for a very long time.
Now, all this advice on how to conduct the day to day business of the Med Ctr. which sees between twenty and fifty people a day, (conservative est. I think) is freely given by a Doctor who's practice is for the most part limited to incontinence in the fair sex, and who sees approx. eight patients a day, or so I am told by an, "un-named but realiable" source.So I personally would not put much stock in all the allegations and or fixes advocated by this particular person. Go to the meetings and find out, "What's going on up there" and why.

Unlawful? Underhanded? Unethical? Which?

Hi All, Here is a little scenario I want to put forth. What if a person decided on their own hook, and in their own home, to "call" a "meeting" of the "board" that oversees the process of the job held by this person? Oh yes, and be sure NOT to invite to the same "meeting", two of the members of said entity who will not acquiesce(SP) to your requests/demands without due diligence? Well this happened a couple days ago and the Board in question is one that we are all familiar with. I was not, and am not privy to what was said there, or what if anything was decided on, to be voted on at a later meeting. Everyone who did not have a clue, had a lot to say about what went on at these previous, OPEN meetings. Now it appears that 7/9 ths of this board has taken it upon themselves to hold some sort of a clandestine meeting without the knowledge of the rest! What does this sound like to you. I understand they were discussing staffing issues, and solutions to same. Having an invited guest as a speaker to tell them how to do their job was another highlight of the evening. I don't know if all members were "sworn to secrecey" or what, but if I had been one of the members invited, when I found out that a select few were intentionally un-invited, I would have left the room and urged the rest of my fellow mwmbers to do the same! This is just plain Bull****!! I thought the days of backroom politics were to become extinct in my generation, but it apparently has flourished here on this little piece of rock. I would encourage the Town Council to abolish the whole damn board and start anew with a new set of people. Ethicality here in this board, has leaked right out through the floorboards and into the bilges with the rest of a few things called honor and accountability. PISSED again, I say, TIFN