Windpower Redux

I under stand from this weeks BIT, that there was a poll out there waiting to be taken regarding how local folks felt about the possibility of quite a few windmills mushrooming offshore between here and Montauk. I don't have the paper in front of me, but as I recall, 216 is the number of respondents participating in the survey. Out of that number, 74 were dead set against the possibility. I would venture to say that that particular group were the ones with the deepest pockets to whom(?) a $800-900 a month electric bill is chump change. I would further suggest that they are the ones who rail against ruining their "view-sheds". Now there is a yuppie word that I heartily detest!
The rest of we "poorer denizens" of BI would welcome a less greedy grab into our more shallow pockets at he expense of having to see a few (score?)WECS off to the southwest of the Island.

It has continued to amaze me that the majority of the people of this town, and the US as a whole, cannot see or WILL NOT see the writing on the wall as regards use of the good old fossil fuel for electricity. I am heartened to note that there are folks out there who continue to look for new ways of generating electricity. How about the one by a scientist trying to develop a way of delivering radioisotopes to cancer cells in order to save his wife's life, and accidentally separated ordinary sea water into it's two main component parts, Hydrogen and Oxygen? Then he funneled the resultant gas to a small Stirling steam engine and made it run and produce that greatest in demand of commodities, electricity!! The story is out there on the Internet with pictures and text. I wonder just which of the big oil companies have already bought the rights to that invention that we'll never see in production!!

So don't let anyone tell you that wind power is just a fad that will soon fade away. Not anytime soon! I have had a WECS, Wind Energy Conversion System, sitting in my yard and running virtually continuously for the last 26 YEARS! There have been short down times because of maintenance and blade replacement(2), and one major PREVENTATIVE event where it was sent back to the manufacturer for a good overhaul. In that time, it has generated according to my meter in the cellar, over 320 some K's of electricity! We have used most of that right here on the premises. We have NOT been attentive to the strict conservation of the juice, because it was being made far faster than we could use it! Even using all the electric appliances we had on particularly windy days. The excess went back into the grid to be used by others. BIPCO pays us a rather minuscule amount for what we put back, and then charges other users, and myself the exorbitant rates to buy it back when the wind, she no blow eh? Translate that 320+ K figure into dollars at the rates over the last 26 years and you can see where wind power is an absolutely viable commodity, as the people of Scandinavia and the Low countries of Europe have discovered a long time ago. They are so far ahead of us as to make our efforts to catch up look pitifully and painfully inadequate to say the least.

So come on all ye who are sick and tired of, and becoming more unable to pay the high rates for juice, break out your computers, typewriters?, pens, and pencils, and draft a letter of recommendation to the Town Council to go forward as fast as is possible with the implementation of the wave generators and the installation of as many WECS as possible! Get rid of the WECS ordinance as it is presently written because it benefits NO ONE except those aforementioned deep pocketed people who really don't give one good shit about YOU, or me!!!

It's Not about Marriage

I got this from a friend in New Mexico and it expresses my sentiments totally. I also don't CARE about your sexuality or lack thereof, but please do not shove it in my face! As I said, I don't care! Enjoy the read. The author, Dave Stoddard, is retired U.S. Border Patrol. He lives in SE ARizona.

Ordinarily I write about border related issues. But late last year I wrote a satiric article about Arizona's Representative Jim Kolbe and I included a letter I had written to him in which I claimed that I wanted to marry my horse.

You would not believe the hate mail generated. It came from all over the world, so I am sure it struck a homosexual nerve. This article should really fire them up.

I could not care less what two consenting adults do behind closed doors. It simply does not concern me. But, keep it off my T.V., out of my schools, away from my family and out of my face. Keep it to yourself. I don't want to know about it.

It seems that in every direction you look today the homosexual agenda is plastered everywhere promoted by the courts, the National Education Association, the ACLU, sundry special interest groups and even some apostate churches.I am sick of it. It is not normal. It is a perversion, an aberration, a deviancy and it is repugnant. It is a behavior that is dangerous and simply out of sync with natural and spiritual values.

Yet, if you are repulsed by homosexual behavior, (Notice I haven't mentioned homosexuals. The few homosexuals I have known were and are amiable, pleasant and even likeable), but, their behavior is simply appalling.

A phobia is defined as an "unreasonable fear". You can have an unreasonable fear of practically anything and many people have phobias. Yet, if you are disgusted by homosexual behavior you are "homophobic". How so? Not only are you homophobic you are a bigot. Why? Since homosexuality is a behavior there is no way to look at someone and determine he or she is homosexual. It has to be communicated by word, action or clothing. The orientation must be communicated, confessed or flaunted. How can that be bigotry? It is not likely that a homo will suddenly appear and terrorize anyone. Again I ask, "Why is failure to embrace homosexual behavior a phobia?" Let's not equate disgust, aversion, and repulsion with unreasonable fear.

I received an email from one fellow who actually believed that I wanted to marry my horse. He chastised me and stated that I couldn't morally engage in bestiality because animals can't give consent. However, all humans can give consent, even children. Wrong, moron! Pedophilia is not just morally wrong, it is a crime, and it is sickening and disgusting.

Another individual pointed out to me that homosexuality exists in the animal kingdom and that it is natural and therefore normal and acceptable. He used, as an example, two male penguins in a New York zoo that fell in love and hatched out an egg. (As I remember, some dude used this event to write a children's book touting the homosexual lifestyle). Wrong Twinkletoes! It is the male penguin who spends weeks in the Antarctic cold hatching the chick while the mother forages for food. When the mother returns, the baby penguin is already hatched and then the father walks to the ocean to feed. It is the male penguin's job to hatch the egg. Nothing homo about that.

Then I was told about the phenomenon of bulls mounting one another as evidence of "gayness" in animals. Wrong, Donkey Breath! Nothing unnatural about that either. Cattle can't tell by sight which is the opposite sex. They are not bright enough to see a difference. Bulls are stimulated to mating behavior by pheromones. Cows in heat emit an odor that drives the bull crazy. The same is true with most mammals. Simply because a pen full of young bulls engage in mounting behavior does not mean they are homosexual bulls. It does mean that there is at least one cow close by who is in heat.

Then another told me about love. Love between humans is beautiful, natural and to be celebrated. This includes homosexual love. Wrong, Rump Ranger! Unnatural sex between humans is lust. There is huge difference between love and lust. It is so easy to get confused when values are blurred by predators and perverts preying on emotionally disturbed and vulnerable individuals. Many are damaged for a lifetime.

Then I had an example of fish that change gender. It is true that there are fish species that will literally change gender when confined in a small pool where there are none of the opposite sex. This is a mechanism provided by nature to preserve the fish specie in pools of water that have become isolated. These fish actually change their sex and they reproduce. They do this without hormone injections and surgery. It has nothing to do with "gender identity disorder".

There is not one example of true homosexuality in the animal kingdom despite what the liberal media is telling you. But somehow, if you do not accept, endorse, and applaud homosexual behavior, you are excoriated as some kind of bigoted, homophobic Neanderthal.

It has become an issue of civil rights. They want a "civil right" to expose hetero-Americans and children to immoral, unnatural and dangerous behavior. A homosexual has every civil right I do. So, it is not about civil rights. It is not about diversity and tolerance. That is unless diversity and tolerance means that we sacrifice our convictions and beliefs on the altar of political correctness and accept homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality and not at all unnatural or immoral. To homos we must endorse it, applaud it, accept it and we cannot teach our children that it is wrong or we are bigoted homophobes and people to be scorned and ridiculed.

Recently the House of Representatives passed HR-1592, the so called "Hate Crimes Legislation". It is currently being considered and strengthened in the Senate. Senator Kennedy, as expected, has some amendments. Soon it may be against the law to write what I have written here. It might even become illegal to voice Christian beliefs, since the Christian God has stated that homosexuality is an abomination.
President Bush has indicated that he will not sign the legislation. If he follows through and vetoes the Hate Crimes Bill, what about the next President?
Massachusetts has already legalized same sex marriage. Immediately hundreds of homos flocked to Massachusetts to get married. Then many of them went back to their home states and filed for divorce hoping that other states would recognize a same sex marriage from another state thereby legitimizing same sex marriages. If it were solely about marriage, why don't they just stay married and be happy?
It's not about marriage. It is not about civil rights, diversity or any related thing. It is about recognition, validation, acceptance, legitimizing and embracing homosexuality and eliminating existing values and mores. Homosexuals want to feel good about themselves. They want to be celebrated and applauded based on a behavior. They can't feel good about themselves until they leave that behavior. It is not genetic. If there were a genetic factor, it would have been eliminated from the gene pool many generations ago. It is not a hormonal imbalance, (unless hormones are being injected).
Homosexuality is a spiritual disease. It can be cured spiritually and there are many former homosexuals attesting to this fact.

Amen Brothers and Sisters, TIFN!!!

Superman

If you are looking for something to read for a few minutes, go over to the right side of this page and scroll down till you get to the 'links' part and click on Michael Yon's online magazine. Then read the newest dispatch called "superman". This guy has been there in Iraq for most of two years or more. If you want to know what is really happening over there, read some of his previous dispatches. He tells it like it IS and not just gloss and bullshit like the MSM. They tell us every day how many of our kids are being killed over there and we need to get the hell out of there! Funny but you don't hear very much about the 6000 teen age drivers that get killed here in the US every damned month!! I wonder just what their frame of reference might be for that statistic? Another two 16 year old girls killed in a smashup, ho hum, four die in an IED explosion in Iraq, Holy shit! the Army, Navy, Marines, all the military is destroying our nations youth!!! Katy Couric needs to get a dose of reality shoved down her throat!! TIFN

Inside tour of the hotel

As I obviously haven't figured out how to get the writing on the right photo, at the period at the end of each short blurb, apply it to the preceding photo! There, that ought to confuse the hell out of you! It did to me!!Bowling alley will be up here!! Thats it for this one.
Master bedroom, all are about the same except for size. All have big closets and two windows, so lots of light!.
Downstairs full bath.
Guess where?.
Standing in stove "slot" looking into living room.
Rest of livingroom and front door facing Old Town Road
Looking back at slider and into kitchen.
Standing inside slider looking into part of dining/living room.
This is a view with the siding being installed after the "scup way" was built on.

Outside Views of the Hotel being set in place

The roof is unfolded here and the gable ends being installed. The nummbers didn't wind up on each pic, but you get the idea. Now that Sam got me on the right track, I'll do an inside tour in the next post. Then after a week or so I'm going to take both posts down as they do use up a lot of space!
4
#3
#2
This was the first box set in place

Disapperance!

Been gone for a while as I am spending quite a lot of time in that HOTEL out in front of my house!! The sheet rocking and taping of the joints where the boxes came together is all done and awaiting the paint. The floors on both levels now have their covering installed. It looks like oak flooring but is a composite material that just snaps together like a puzzle. It sits on top of a layer of some sort of foam and this gives the floor a bit of resilience so that it doesn't feel like cement! Door thresholds are all in except for two on main floor. Home made out of 3/4 inch red oak, screwed and plugged and four coated with poly-U.

All the doors and room baseboards are trimmed and waiting paint. No cellar stairs from the inside yet. All the exterior covering is sitting on the stringers! Up stairs bathroom is awaiting it's finish till the rest of house is complete. Bottom floor one is getting it's tile put down as I write this. Electric service entrance and meter receptacle are ready and waiting for the wires from the pole and the meter.

As you can see driving by, the corner boards and trim are in the process of installation as well as the Hardi-board siding. It is going kind of slow, but with all the starts and stops to take care of "other" business interests, it continues apace. That stuff is pretty amazing. It is made out of cement and some sort of fiber that gives it strength and flexibility. It is cut when necessary, from the back side and the cutting tool of choice looks and acts just like a pair of metal cutting "nibbler" shears! It cuts a pretty darn straight line too, as long as your hand is fairly steady! Supposed to last forever but who knows, haven't met anyone who has been around for that long yet, although I'm trying.

All the plumbing materials are in the basement and are crawling around on the floor sorting themselves out and lining themselves up so that all we have to do is to apply a little glue and some strategically placed hangars, and viola! Water! Now I do understand that water and electricity don't mix well, so we are doing our best to keep them separated and in their respective conduits.

Having worked with Bob Rose on a house or two after I had retired from the Navy, and having done some remodeling on my house, I thought I knew about how long it would take to finish the "putting together" of this modular house. NOT SO! It took those house setter guys just six hours to place the thing on the foundation, a few more to screw it together, and then they were gone! From the rate of progress that we are advancing, it will probably be another few weeks before we are done!! Then there is the landscaping to be done and in which I am having NO PART! Shovels and rakes don't fit my hand too good anymore.

Kirk invites anyone interested to stop by for a tour of the hotel if you are so inclined. Been about a hundred so far! TIFN

Pelosi's Peccadillio

"The Nancy" told us all during the last election process that she was going to "clean up" the congress and stop all these "earmarks" during the first 100 hours of her reign. Well that actually happened, but it only lasted for four months! Her fellow crooks in congress led by big John Murtha just had the word put out to the troops that it was ok to go back to "porking", just don't add it to the pending bills till just before they are to come up for debate in the House and Senate! Then there is only ONE HOUR allowed to discuss the bill before the vote! Not enough time to discredit the flagrant ones before the vote MUST be taken according to the house rules! So all her name calling of the folks on the other side of the isle is just that, blathering! She has shown her true colors AGAIN, by allowing this, nay encouraging this ability of her cohorts to stick their hands in your pockets and just TAKE whatever amount of money they feel entitled too on that particular day! Her "stripe" is no different that the rest of the crooks in Congress, R or D! So I say again, at the next election and the two following that, DO NOT RE-ELECT ANY INCUMBENT!! That place needs a through house cleaning. Right on down too the office personnel who run the place day to day. Comments anyone??

Is Something amiss-ing at the Town Hall?

So, what is happening at the Town Hall these days? Things were rolling right along and looking good. But in the last few weeks, things have come to a standstill as far as I can see. I heard today that the clerk of the works has departed for points far to the west, Hawaii, for the next two years. Is that to be taken as an indication that the process down there will be ongoing for another two years also?

What is going on? Has the contractor left the job? Why? Non-payment from the Town? I have no idea and am just asking. There is something seriously amiss with the whole job so the little birdies have been whispering to me. How come, through out the whole construction phase there has been no public fiscal accounting of the expenditures for the job? Why was there no bond posted for the job, and why only for THIS particular endeavor. Who is counting the chickens at night and making sure they are roosting where they are supposed to be?

I think that with all the fiscal responsibility that the present Town Council has shown, that it might behoove them to demand a full and accurate accounting of where things stand money wise with this project and with the school project. As in with numbers on a piece of paper, NOT delivered orally! How come,if there large deficits in the funds to pay for completion of the new Hall, why were they not put into the last financial Town Meeting warrant so they could be paid. I'm told those deficits run to upwards of $800,000.00! Could this be true?

It is time for the Council to DEMAND answers and solutions to all these un-requited problems. It appears to me, as an outsider looking in, that there is a large dose of mis-management, or should I say NO management going on down there! Is it time for a new hand on the reins? This horse appears to have the bit in it's teeth, and is headed wherever it damned well pleases!

There now, is THIS better than bitching about hats, entitlements, and all that kind of stuff. Let's hear from all you concerned people out there. No Nasty name calling though. Be civil! TIFN

Uncouth Youth

I went out to breakfast this morning up at the 1661 Inn. It is of course Mothers Day and the in-house mother had been invited out to eat by the newest mother in the family, her husband, and their daughter. So off we go to the best place on the Island for a quiet breakfast, in a very nice location and with Old Island ambiance.

When we entered the building through the lobby, my attention was immediately drawn to FOUR (4) different YOUNG men in the dining room and at the buffet table. The reason for the attraction? All four of them were seated at four different tables with their significant others, and each one of them was wearing a HAT! At the table! In a dining room! In someone Else's "house"! Has this society finally gone over the edge and begun it's slow slide to oblivion?

The blatant disregard for the MOST BASIC rules of etiquette are routinely ignored by the group of people of my children's generation and the upcoming one. The wearing of a hat indoors was and is a huge no-no to my generation. This was drilled into me by my mother and father and then for another 20 years by the US Navy. To my way of thinking, it is as big a slap in the face, as would be a punch by a prize-fighter, to the person who owns and maintains the building you have entered.

There are places where it is acceptable to wear a hat, Wal-Mart, grocery stores, garages, etc. But I have a hard time restraining myself from hat removal when I first enter these places.

I think it is the epitome of dis-courteousness, and a direct reflection of your lack of any basic social graces, apparently NOT instilled in you as a child, if you are an offender. It just shows how much you disrespect the abode and the people who inhabit that abode you have entered. You might as well spit on the floor as you enter, it couldn't be any more uncouth!

Well as good as the breakfast was, and as good as was the company, I was just put off by having to see on three sides of me, this piss poor behavior by these four ignorant people! I would dearly love to have told each of them off, but in a rare moment of restraint, and not desirous of creating a riot in Steve and Rita's wonderful setting, I held my tongue, albeit with a big pair of pliers, and weighted down with a cement block!

I am sure that Arnold Toynbee would agree that we have made at least the first step on the slippery slope to dis-integration! And all because some folks are to dumb to come in from the rain! TIFN.

Another Momentous Day

This is an update to the first post of the year where I mentioned that Kirk's old house was coming down. Well it was a three week process to demolish the old place and it sure turned out to be a hard job. After all the furniture and good stuff was removed to a storage place the demo began. All the sheet rock, insulation, floor tiles, roof shingles, and all the other toxic stuff was yanked out and put in a 30 yard dump truck and hauled off to the Johnston landfill. Then we just knocked it down with a backhoe and released all of it's stored up energy into the atmosphere so as to do our part in living up to Algore's dire predictions. I fully expect to go to purgatory for doing it, and catching hell here, for so speaking about it!

So then began the process of readying the old hole in the ground for the new house. First step was to add four feet to the width of it and then to get the new sills down and all leveled up. That process was culminated two days ago. So there it sits, waiting patiently for it's new occupant!

And so today, at 4 this afternoon, the first of the four parts of the house rolled off the boat and down to the beach to await it's other companions. They will be coming, one a day, for the next three days. On Monday morning next, the process of piling them up on the foundation begins. By the end of that day, the newest domicile on BI will be up and ready for some siding and trim. All that is to happen as soon as possible in order to make it nice and watertight! Then it's time to move inside and finish off the sheet-rocking, electrical and plumbing hookups and put down the flooring. Finish that and move back in all the good stuff and then it will be time for Kirk and those two sweet little grandchildren of mine to return to the premises, and block from my view,ALL THOSE DAMN CARS GOING UP AND DOWN THE ROAD!!! TIFN

A Little Red Pig

About a week ago one of my kids called me on the cell phone and announced to me that there was a baby red pig in the field down by the new gas building! So off I go to capture the little booger before he gets in the road and run over. All this time I'm wondering how in hell a baby pig managed to get down there without someone, previous owner? missing him/her.

Around the corner I go and there he is, standing stock still in the field with blood just pouring out of him as the ground all around was a bright red! I was amazed that he was still standing up seeing all the redness totally surrounding him! Moving up close, I discovered that this was no ordinary pig. This was a ceramic pig! Probably not going to be much good for barbecuing!

Apparently someone parked this little previously pink colored porker on the grass there and proceeded to empty a spray can of red paint on him. Ergo, all the 'blood' I saw covering him and the ground around him.

So my quest is to find out, "Does anyone want this little hardened piece of pork back at their domicile?" And what I'd really like to know is,"why was he placed there in particular to receive his new skin color"? Was this intended as some sort of voodoo talisman relating to my size as compared to this fellow when he grew up? Geez Chubby, I think some one is after all of we folks of "larger girth"! Come on now someone, 'fess up'. You can leave your answer anonymously, or leave us a nom-de -plume so we can do some detective work. Right now he is sitting on my kitchen table keeping an eye on all the stuff that goes in my garbage can! TIFN

"No Grapes" of Wrath

This post is in response to some of the comments posted on the previous one. It was totally my fault that some of the comments put up there were allowed to stay. I like to provoke controversy and exchange of ideas, but things went awry and off thread for no apparent reason. I usually check the comments every three or four days but didn't do that soon enough on the last one. When I finally did it was to late as the damage has been done.From now on I will pay closer attention.

And now too our "anonymous" grapeless poster.I believe he is the same person I have previously called the "cyber sniper". I call him that because he never has a good word to say about any of the comments made on these posts and is particularly inimical in his regard for me. Which, in and of itself is fine. The thing I find most revolting about him is his cowardly way of hiding behind his anonymity and then shouting his degrading comments about others at the top of his voice! He obviously believes himself to be at the top of the food (thought process)chain when it comes to his critiques of the others who post here. Do we, the uncouth, unread masses believe this. Hell no! Here I revert to my 20 years of Navy language training. This guy is the most chicken s**t, cowardly, backstabbing, lowlife SOB I have run across in many a year! And I do believe I know who he is!

So mr. Sniper, If you can't stand some of the members of the School Committee, and other various board members, why don't you come to the meetings and try to discredit them in full public view instead of hiding behind a tree and throwing verbal slings and arrows? Come out from your closet of anonymity and cast them from in the clear where we will come to know you for the incompetent asshole that you are. Come to the next School Committee meeting and I'm sure the Superintendent would be glad to clear up, errr-- shred your idiotic ravings to the masses. Or you could just disappear from these pages and leave the rhetorical conversations to the more enlightened of us, not that I consider myself one of THOSE!

A Needful Organisation

Is there out here on our little Island a, "people friendly" group that is in need of a few bucks? I know there are lots of organisations that are always needing money for one thing or another. I am looking for one along the lines of the Mary D fund. One that will take what ever money they make and use it for the people that are in dire need. This could also include individuals who have the need. Now why do I ask this you may inquire? Well basically I, 'yam wot I yam, a HAM"! My wife and I, as well as a few others with a musical bent, have been talking for the last couple of years about getting together and putting on a strictly country /western show of songs no newer than 40 years old!! Hell I can't even figure out what these new guys are talking about! But them "ole fellers" knew what to talk about, you know, the guy that ran off with your girlfriend, wife, horse, truck, dog!! What ever!

So we thought it would be fun to do this, and to make some money for needy others at the same time. So if you have any ideas for recipients etc. post them here and if you are of the musical bent and would like to get up there in front of all your friends and make a fool/ass of yourselves like we do on regular occasions, just sign up. WE thought we would try to keep it to ten to twelve singers,or groups, so that each could give full voice to four or five songs in each of a couple of sets. If you don't care to leave your name here, you can email me at elittle@verizon.net, or use that other thing called a telephone. If we get enough interest, maybe we will try to do it this summer when there are lots of folks with deep pockets around. Ukelele's welcome! TIFN

Re: Feeding the mind......

The reason I tried to get as many comments as possible about eating in the classrooms of the school you attended was this. After having been associated with the BI School in my very MINOR capacity as the steering wheel for the cleaning and maintenance crew, I noticed events that have not yet ceased to amaze and confuse me. To wit; the carrying out of food of all descriptions, from the cafeteria and into the classrooms!!

After watching this for a few months, I finally asked, "what's the deal with this practice"? I was told that it had been allowed to happen, kind of by acts of omission. There are some children that because of monetary constraints weren't getting to eat breakfast before coming to school. There is a State mandate that says that if you accept money from the state for your school, you must provide a nutritious breakfast for those children, a mandate that I am in FULL ACCORD with! Over time more and more children began eating there and paying for it out of Mommy and Daddy's pocket. It became more expedient for the 'rents to send the kids to school with a couple of bucks than a lunch bucket, and that is also just fine with me. Where it becomes a problem is when the food leaves the confines of the Cafeteria! This is because when they, as well as others came as "late arrivals", they couldn't finish eating before it was time for class, they were allowed to carry it to their classrooms to finish.

Enter now the fact that a lot of this food sits in the classroom from early AM till at least noon and even till dismissal time at 1421 hours. Many times during the day, small to large bits of this food get dropped on the floor to be ground into it and the spaces between the flooring. There it sits, becoming the incubation nurseries for who knows what kind of little germies!

One day while discussing with a School Committee member the possible different floor covering options to be used on the elementary room floors, I asked that we consider reverting to carpets as had been done in the past. Immediately came the reply about the fact that there were a lot of children that had allergies and that the carpets "MIGHT POSSIBLY" exacerbate the problem. That particular problem can be seen as a non-starter as hospitals routinely have carpets installed and the allergy problem mitigated by the types on carpets installed! And riding atop that small hitch was the problem of food being constantly dropped and ridden into the carpet and all the associated ills(no pun intended) that go with those occurrences.

My come back too that was to obliquely make a comment about NOT eating in the classroom. Apparently it wasn't heard or was silently dismissed out of hand.

So after doing a few days of searching through all the maintenance magazines that the school regularly receives, and doing a lot of hours of on-line searching and reading, I personally came to the conviction that a carpet was the only way to go to rectify all the ills connected with the conditions of the rooms as presently constituted. In this vein, I have written a short discourse to be presented to the School Committee on the reasons why I, as the Steering Wheel, recommend the switch back to a high end carpet, and how we as the, "implementers of cleanliness" would go about maintaining that level of spotlessness!

Referring back to the top of the rant, parents have got to take back some of the responsibilities of raising their children. That would include making sure they are adequately fed before school if they are financially able, and if they are not,
getting them to the school early enough for them to consume the food in the cafeteria! The food ALL OVER the building has to stop! Besides being unsanitary, it makes the place look like a shit-house as food is ROUTINELY dropped all over the place! TIFN

Boneless Wonders

After reading quite a few blog sites this AM I came across one that discovered that Grandma Pelosi and her lapdog Reid have come up with another way to to speak out of both sides of their mouths at the same time. I had always thought that was a physical impossibility.
We hear every day from them that they don't support the war in Iraq and WON'T send in more troops. So when it comes right down to the part where it says in the Constitution that," Congress shall vote to fund or not, any wars",(wording is not exact, but the gist is there), they are just to GD chicken shit to actually vote for their convictions! So what do they do? They decide to introduce a NON_BINDING resolution regarding sending more troops! And this will do what? Oh yeah, if things turn out bad in Iraq in the next two years, it will perfectly position them for the '08 Prez run by saying look how GWB F***** up THAT idea of more troops on the ground. Conversely, if things turn out well, why then you will hear loud and continuous bloviating about how they NEVER did cut funding for the war and were the greatest supporters of the "absolutely needed conflict in order to establish democracy in the middle east".
You would think that their mouths as well as their brains would HURT after all the doublespeak emanating from them. Let's see, did I not hear grandma P speaking about a Congress filled with "Transparency and Bi-partisanship"? Well it sure is transparent in some respects! Bi-Partisan? It appears to be well and truly on it's way down the tubes also. Wait and see I guess! TIFN
PS Don't forget the previous post. I need lots more input of any kind! Thanks
PPS: Go over to the right side of this page and click on Michael Yon Online Mag. Then navigate around so that you read the three section,"Walking the Line" post in order. This will give you a sense of what's going on "over there"!

Feeding the mind, as well as the body

I'm about to use this blog spot to run a poll. One of the duties of the job at the school is to find better ways of keeping the place clean and neat, and in the greatest shape possible necessary for the filling of the young occupants minds. Along these lines I would like to pose this question to readers of all ages. When you respond, if you do, add the decade that you were in school please. This applies to all readers from wherever you went to school, not just BI. The question is:

Were you allowed to take and consume any food what-so-ever into a classroom? Or were you required to eat it in a cafeteria or a room designated just for that purpose?

I'm going to leave it at this point for right now. After a couple of weeks, I'll come back and tell you why I ran this post. TIFN

What's happening in '07

Well for starters, this is the second anniversary of my attempt at blogging.

It was,4 days ago, the 45th year anniversary of attempting to make a marriage work.

In about two to three weeks there will be the addition of grandchild number six! Of all the events that will happen this year, this is the most anticipated!

With regard to my third attempt at running away from permanent retirement, the job at the BI School is coming along nicely albeit slowly. Lots of niggling things need fixing but because of time and money constraints they move at a laggardly pace.

The miniscule part of my life now that is called Littlefield and Sons Ltd., has updated it's bookkeeping system from one called Real World that has served us well for about 26 years to a new one from Quicken. So you will see a different kind of invoice in the mail if you are one of our most valued customers. And BTW, thanks too all who have sent cards and gifts over the years!

As a part of keeping up with the times, in the near future there will be a new LPG delivery truck cruising the highways and byways of the Island. I wanted it to be painted orange and black but was vetoed by the whole clan!

Model plane building and flying has slowed to a virtually non-existent pace as involvement with other things vie for the time. As in, spent 1/2 the day Sunday running sheets of old paper through a blender with lots of water and turning it into raw pulp to make more paper! That was a granddaughter project she received for X-mas. Whew, glad that is over! Lots of time and labor involved for not much return.

Have been informed by the parents of the soon to be New Granddaughter, (Ha HA, I know what her name will be!), that she, the baby, wishes for Mama-san and myself to be available for consulting, hugging, kissing, etc. when she is old enough for such things. So within the parameters of trying to remaining a viable entity when she comes of that age, we have been asked to do all we can to make that possible. That would include trying to reduce the body mass from huge to something approaching svelte! So in the interests of same, please, "Do Not Feed The Dieters!".

And the last but significant event to happen around here will be the demise of the over two hundred year old house of Kirk's out front. The old place has really begun to show its age even with the not so recent rehabs. So it will shortly be coming down to be replaced by a modular that will look virtually the same on the outside, but with a drastically modified interior floor plan.

That's it for now. From all of us to all of you readers, the extended family wishes each of you a very happy and prosperous new year. Will expect you all back here in 365 days for the 3rd anniversary of the blogging experience. TIFN

Christmas Cheer-Not!

Went over to America the other day to do some shopping and after most of the day spent up around Warwick, we made our way to the big Wal-Mart in Westerly where the Missus says she just had to go for whatever reasons. By now, I'm sick of traipsing around in stores looking for those elusive Xmas gifts. Never did get any. So she goes into the store and I sit in the car. After a few minutes I noticed this guy and another lady arrive in front of the store carrying two waist high, 6 inch square boxes with feet to make them stand up and a locking top on them. The guy sets up shop in front of the main entrance and the lady goes to the food store part of the building. Imagine my surprise when the guys whips out a small hand bell and begins to shake it like he was trying to exorcise a devil from inside it! This guy looked like a bum, dirty, no teeth, scruffy beard and a great big parka on one of the days last week when the temp was up in the low sixties over there.This is the guy the Salvation Army supposedly sent out there to represent them. The Salvation Army is one of the charities I always felt was a worthy charity so I got out of the car, dug out a twenty and walked over to the guy and started to put the money in the slot,when he holds out his hand and says,"do you want me to put that in for you?" So I handed it to him and says sure and started to walk away as he puts it in the box. Only I happened to notice that he was holding onto one corner of the bill as he made to insert it. He pushed it in and then pulled it back a little so it was stuck in there with the corner still showing... I said to him that it didn't go down and he makes a show of wacking the box with the flat of his hand which did nothing to make the bill go down. So I stepped back over and pushed it down with my finger. By now I'm a whole lot suspicious if this guy is who he pretends to be, so I went in the store to the customer service desk and asked if these two people were legitimate reps of the "Army". The lady said she assumed so and I mentioned what had just happened and recommended that she call and find out.
I went back out to my car and watched this guy thru a pair of binoculars as he pulled this same scam with about fifteen or so other people. If they walked up and pushed the money in themselves, in it went. If anyone walked up and handed him the money, in it went also,TO HIS POCKET after making the big show about stuffing it in the box!
I don't know what the final outcome was, but he was still there when we left after about two hours, hauling in his ill gotten gains from a bunch of unsuspecting good hearted people. From now on my donation will go directly to the "Army"in the form of a check.
So in the meantime, I would wish for all of you who read this thing, a very, "Merry Christmas"! No PC bull here thank you very much. Hope all of you have a great time over the holidays and have an even better time in the coming year. The very best to all from the whole extended Littlefield family. Peace on Earth. Please!

Refurbished Runway has first crash!

Well that didn't take long did it? Actually it wasn't a full sized aircraft. Before the runway was completed, and on a Sunday morning while the airport was still closed to air traffic, I took my brand new, five foot wingspan, P-51 Mustang radio controlled plane up there to give it, it's initial trial by fire. This plane is a 1/5 scale version of the venerable fighter escort plane from WWII. It was the plane that made it feasible to shadow the bombers all the way to the heart of Germany and give them protection all the way in and back home. It was used almost exclusively by the Army Air Force at the time.
It took me a long time to lower myself far enough to build an Air Farce(just kidding) plane after being an old Navy guy for 20 years, but, what the heck, I'd run out of Navy A/C to model. Besides, this is one fine looking plane in anybodies estimation.

So off I go with all the necessary equipment needed to get one of these babies in the air. Big battery and starter to get it cranking over, big portable air tank to fill the small air tank inside the fuselage, this to make the retractable landing gear operate,fuel cans and pumps,a fully charged radio system, Tx. and Rx. First off I have to attach the wing to the fuse which is done by two 1/4 nylon bolts. Then it is charge the air tank and then fill the fuel tanks. Lots of tank stuff with this plane! Now it's time to take a few pictures of this baby before engine start. After the photo op was complete, there was no way to delay this any further. Turn on the Tx. and then the Rx. Run all the control surfaces through their complete range on high and low rates. Yup they all work fine, throttle also. Okay, pull the prop thru a few turns, crack the throttle, apply the heat to the glow plug, push the starter against the prop spinner and press the switch. It only took about ten seconds of cranking for that OS MAX 1.20 four stroke engine to fire and settle right into a nice idle. Run the engine up to full power and set the needle valve for high and low operation, run the flight control surfaces through their full range of motion again and it is time to go. She is sitting right on the centerline of the runway, so with a smooth steady push to full power and a little rudder to keep her straight down the runway, off we go. After about 15 feet the tail comes up and I let her build up a good head of steam before I gently rotate her into the air. Damn, this thing flies like a dream! A climbing left turn to keep her in close so I can see what it is doing, and I am at about 50 feet altitude with the gear still down, 'cause I'm afraid to let go of any levers just yet to flip a switch! Just as I turn town wind and get level, it becomes deathly silent up there in the air next to my beautiful bird! As in a real plane, when that fan out on the front of the plane stops generating a breeze, the hard sweats immediately start behind the controls! Same thing here. What to do? Try to put it back on the runway is the first thought, but realize that I don't have enough speed or altitude to stretch out the glide. This thing is heavy too! It weighs about 15-18 pounds when fully loaded. So the only option is to push the nose over to see if I can generate a little airspeed, but this thing flies like a brick when all forward motion is suspended. When I pushed the nose over, it used up all my altitude in about 2 seconds, and my hard flare didn't do much to arrest or even soften it's contact with the ground. She plowed into the ground, thankfully about a foot of soft wet mud, and snapped off both of the extended landing gear and buried the engine up to the back of the crankcase! Twas actually a spectacular landing! Kind of like some of Herman's!
After wading thru the mud and retrieving all the various and sundry pieces, it was determined that actually very minimal damage was done to the wing structure and that it could and would be repaired rather easily. Which it has been as of this writing. Just waiting for new decals to arrive before flight number two.

So I am claiming the rights to the title of, first takeoff, first landing(close but not on), and first aircraft incident(read, crash) on the newly refurbished BI Airport. Also the second of each category as I flew an electric powered Islander around for one flight also.

Oh yeah, why did the engine quit you may ask? Well after getting her home and all the mud dug out of the airframe and in the engine room, I discovered that the fuel line from the fuel tank to the fuel pump on the back of the engine had come off. No gas, no go, no fly, result? CRASH!! Oh well, off again very soon I hope! TIFN

What's the plan Nancy?

Well they screamed and hollered for the last year or so about President Bush having no "Plan" for Iraq. Then the new, soon to be Speaker of the house was asked on a news interview just what was the Dems plan for Iraq, she stammered and stuttered, couldn't come up with an answer and changed the subject! Come on Nancy what's the plan?
She also put out a list of what she was going to accomplish in her first 100 HOURS, not days, of her assuming her new position. One of them was that she is going to remove America's dependency on foreign oil and put us in the position of energy independancy! Guess that means she IS going to allow oil drilling in the AWR, which she voted against in the past. Hell maybe she is going to go down to Veneszuela and give old Hugo some straight "grandmotherly" advice. Or something else. In 100 hours? Damn Nancy, what sort of favors have YOU been passing out behind closed doors to make a statement like that? If you can do it, I'll vote a straight Dem ticket in '08!
On old BI, I am pretty happy with the results except one. A totally new council would have been really good, but with at least four level heads, maybe some of the things needing to be done will begin to happen. Beginning with a total and complete accountability of the final numbers on the school. It doesn't have to be withheld till the litigation is finished, because we are going to have to expend ALL the money allocated to the project. Probably more!
Negotiations and resolution of the remaining problems with the school are still going on. Some of the problems have been resolved to our satisfaction, while a couple of the thorniest ones remain in dispute as to whosee problems they are. Roof leaks being one of them. But yesterday the roofing company guys spent the day fixing, or at least attempting to fix them. We shall see after a couple of good hard horizontal rainstorms how they fared.
Thats IT For Now! Thanks for all the responses to the last post. They made for interesting reading.

The New First Warden

Well, after reading all the comments on the BIRA "do" at the School last week and taking a long and reflective look at all the candidates for this position, I have finally made my decision as to who will get my vote this time around.
Most all the positions taken by all the candidates, are just re-hashes of the previous stances put forth by their erstwhile forebearers.
This "endorsement" coming from me, may well be the death knell for this guys political aspirations. We have not seen eye to eye on many of the happenings here on the Island, but I believe he will be forceful enough, fair enough, and able to see past all the stone-walling and foot dragging that has gone on for years, and get some of these projects that need doing, DONE!!
I also think that no matter what he personally thinks of another council persons opinions, he will let them, nay MAKE them, be discussed at the table in full view of the townspeople and not subverted behind closed doors as has gone on with some of the previous councils.
I have not heard him say this next anywhere, but I hope it will be one of his priorities, to get a Public Works director hired, a planner, and most of all, a PROFESSIONAL Town Manager, not someone doing it as a hobby.
So when you go to vote, put aside personal feelings and vote for the guy who just may be a welcome surprise. We all know he is not bashful about stating his opinions. Give Steve McQueeney a shot at getting this town in step with the people's desires. BTW, I am STILL a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, to the right of center, Elephant hugging,constitution loving as it was written, Republican!! Half of a Pox on some of you liberals! I don't want you to die, just be a little scarred or at least sick for a day or two.TIFN.

WIN NUMBER #1!!!

Some good news for a change! The Block Island School fifth and sixth graders soccer team just had their first win today on the final home game of the season!! They have only played five games in their very short careers, but this was one to behold. They couldn't stop smiling and laughing and jumping around like a bunch of kids! Duh! How about that, doing what kids are supposed to do. So I say to them, "Congratulations from everybody on the Island"!
Now it is time to start developing those basketball skills also. See you on the courts guys! From all your fans!!!

Something to think about as we get ready to vote

Foreword: I did not write this, just stole it from friend. It would behoove us all to remember just what kind of people we are dealing with when it comes to Hillary C. She is JUST as bad as her philandering Billy. Wonder just who he is "doing" these days?


I know we hear or see all the stories about President Bush and how bad he is, so here is the story the newspapers don't tell you about the president who gave you prosperity that you wanted and bankrupted the country of its morals.

Subject: REMEMBER THIS WHEN HILLARY RUNS FOR PRESIDENT
Bill &Hillary: Worse than you thought & worth remembering and this came from a Democrat

Dear Mr. Ex President Clinton:

I recently saw a bumper sticker that said, "Thank me, I voted for
Clinton-Gore." So, I sat down and reflected on that, and I am sending my
"Thank you" for what you have done, specifically:

1. Thank you for introducing us to Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica
Lewinsky, Dolly Kyle Browning, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broderick. Did
I leave anyone out?

2. Thank you for teaching my 8 year old about oral sex. I had really
planned to wait until he was a little older to discuss it with him, but
now he knows more about it than I did as a senior in college.

3. Thank you for showing us that sexual harassment in the work place
(especially the White House) and on the job is OK, and all you have to
know is what the meaning of "it" is. It really is great to know that
certain sexual acts are not sex, and one person may have sex while the
other one does NOT have sex.

4. Thank you for reintroducing the concept of impeachment to a new
generation and demonstrating that the ridiculous plot of the movie "Wag
the Dog" could be plausible after all.

5. Thanks for making Jimmy Carter look competent, Gerald Ford look
graceful, Richard Nixon look honest, Lyndon Johnson look truthful, and
John Kennedy look moral.

6. Thank you for the 73 House and Senate witnesses who have pled the 5th
Amendment and 17 witnesses who have fled the country to avoid testifying
about Democratic campaign fund raising.

7. Thank you, for the 19 charges, 8 convictions, and 4 imprisonment's from
the Whitewater "mess" and the 55 criminal charges and 32 criminal
convictions (so far) in the other "Clinton" scandals.

8. Thanks also for reducing our military by half, "gutting" much of our
foreign policy, and flying all over the world on "vacations" carefully
disguised as necessary trips.

9 Thank you, also, for "finding" millions of dollars (I really didn't need
it in the first place, and I can't think of a more deserving group of
recipients for my hard-earned tax dollars) for all of your globe-trotting.
I understand you, the family and your cronies have logged in more time
aboard Air Force One than any other administration.

10. Now that you've left the White House, thanks for the 140 pardons of
convicted felons and indicted felons-in-exile. We will love to have them
rejoin society. (Not to mention the scores you pardoned while Governor of
Arkansas)

11. Thanks also for removing the White House silverware. I'm sure that
Laura Bush didn't like the pattern anyway. Also, enjoy the housewarming
gifts you've received from your "friends."

12. Thanks to you and your staff in the West Wing of the White House for
vandalizing and destroying government property on the way out. I also
appreciate removing all of that excess weight (China, silverware, linen,
towels, ash trays, soap, pens, magnetic compass, flight manuals, etc.) out
of Air Force 1. The weight savings means burning less fuel, thus less tax
dollars spent on jet fuel. Thank you!

13. And finally, please ensure that Hillary enjoys the $8 million dollar
advance for her "tell-all" book and you, Bill, the $10 million advance for
your memoirs. Who says crime doesn't pay!

14. The last and most important point - thank you for forcing Israel to
let Mohammed Atta go free. Terrorist pilot Mohammed Atta blew up a bus in
Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part
of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree
to release so-called "political prisoners". However, the Israelis would
not release any with blood on their hands. The American President at the
time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher,
"insisted" that all prisoners be released. Thus Mohammed Atta was freed
and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the
World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American TV networks
at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in
the US from all later reports. Why shouldn't Americans know the real
truth?

What a guy!!

If you agree that the American public must be made aware of these facts,
pass this on. God bless America and THANK YOU (once again) for spending my
taxes so wisely and frugally.

SINCERELY,
A US Citizen

PS. Please pass along a special thank you to Al Gore for "inventing" the
Internet, without which I would not be able to send this wonderful,
factual e-mail.

AND THE REST OF THE STORY Hillary Rodham Clinton, as a New York State
Senator, now comes under the "Congressional Retirement and Staffing Plan,"
which means that even if she never gets reelected, she STILL receives her
Congressional salary until she dies. (Would it not be nice if all
Americans were pension eligible after only 4 years?)

If Bill outlives her, he then inherits HER salary until HE dies. He is
already getting his presidential salary until he dies. If Hillary outlives
Bill, she also gets HIS salary until she dies. Guess who pays for that?

WE DO!

It's common knowledge that in order for her to establish NY residency,
they purchased a million dollar-plus house in upscale Chappaqua, New York.
Makes sense. They are entitled to Secret Service protection for life.
Still makes sense.

Here is where it becomes interesting. Their mortgage payments hover at
around $10,000 per month. BUT, an extra residence HAD to be built within
the acreage to house the Secret Service agents. The Clintons charge the
Federal government $10,000 monthly rent for the use of that extra
residence, which is just about equal to their mortgage payment. This means
that we, the taxpayers, are paying the Clinton's salary, mortgage,
transportation, safety and security, as well as the salaries for their 12
man staff -- and, this is all perfectly legal!

When she runs for President, will you vote for her?

Candidates Night

Well, I do believe there is going to be a chance for all of us to go and grill, or at least lightly "toast" the hopefuls for town offices tomorrow night at the school.

Here is a chance to ask directly, I hope, each one of them just exactly what it is that they WOULD accomplish if elected. I realize after having sat in one of those seats that it takes three to make anything happen. But some of the things I would like to hear addressed directly are:

What WILL you do about the Neck Road? Go look at it after just twenty four hours of NE wind and tide.

What exactly WILL you do about the Old Harbor Dock without disrupting the lively-hood of all the business people down there?

What WILL you do about the Inner basin down there being filled with sand? The last three or four spots on the east dock, have been lost to rental because of sand infiltration.

What WILL you do to stop the ever increasing deterioration of all the towns buildings? That, mainly because of the towns inability to hire some one to keep ahead of the curve. You can't pay them slave wages to do somewhat semi-skilled work and expect to keep them long term.

What WILL you do to stop the forthcoming disaster down at Bridgegate square? They, the State in collusion with our Town Council has agreed to let them take a perfectly well operating four way stop, and re-engineer it to someones idea of,"we can do it better". It works just absolutely fine right now as long as you are not from, NJ, NY, MA, CT, and can't wait for your turn because you HAVE TO BE somewhere else right now!

What WILL you do the next time it becomes necessary to do some paving on the roads of the Island, and an asphalt plant needs to be set up TEMPORARILY? Will you cave in to the rants of three or four people, or let it go forward in the interests of the huge amount of money to be saved for the rest of us in the form of less tax money collected?

What WILL you do about getting Port Authority enabling legislation pushed thru, so that we can have some sort of autonomy over how many more ferries can come here?

And finally, What WILL you do about the possibility of taking on the power company as a co-operatively owned entity, run by a PROFESSIONAL manager?

These are things that people WANT to hear your views on, and ferverently hope you will abide by if elected.

Vulnerability on the Neck Road

After taking a walk on the beach across from the Beachead resturant yesterday, I suspect we are going to be in trouble by the end of this winter. If we get two or three real good 'Noth-easter's" that is. It you take the same stroll, you will notice that most of the fill, old cement, rocks etc. that had been put in there years ago and covered with a varied mix of junk, has been being slowly exposed by the wave action and is rolling out on to what little beach is left there. In a few places, the water has already undercut the edge of the road, and after the next storm, it should begin to fall onto the beach below. I expect that after the next few storms we are going to have a much nastier surprise waiting for us the morning after than the one up by at Scotch beach.
As one of the very first actions that I think the new Council should undertake is to start the proceedings to get the State to honor their "commitment" to keep the roads here in good repair. It is going to be a huge job along the lines of what was done on Spring Street below the Spring House in order to slow down the erosion. You can never stop it, because mother nature is a lot stronger and much more persistent than we mere humans.
I hope that this council can work a lot faster than the ones of the last 17 years, as that is how long, at least, that they have all collectively talked the repair of the Old Harbor dock to death with absolutely no action! Yep! Another study for $20-30 K! Just what we need! Come om ALL you wanna be councils folks, lets hear some dialogue on this one.

Blubber for Dinner anyone?

Here is a little surprise sent to us by those lovely east winds. It is supposedly a Blue Whale of about40-50 feet in length. The Herring and the Black Back gulls have found it and will be well supplied with victuals for the foreseeable future. Hopefully it will be all gone by spring except the bones. But don't you dare touch them! This is a protected species, although it comes a little late for this guy. One of those feds didn't do his job well enough I guess. Anyway, there goes my idea of grabbing a few bones and spending the winter making scrimshaw items of the Town Council in action!! I guess it would have to be of bodies in repose and snoring huh? TIFN  

Path to 9/11

Well I see that ABC is finally going to regain some of its credibility as a viable news entity. It is going to, as of THIS date, air a two part mini-series starting on Sunday night. It is called, The Path to 9/11, a movie made by the Disney people wherein it lays out the WHOLE incredible path of events leading up to the actual occurrence of the two towers being destroyed. Apparently it is an absolutely factual account of what happened. How am I so sure of this? Because the four top Democratic Senators sent a letter to Micheal Eiger, president of Disney, threatening him and ABC with the loss of their licenses to broadcast over the US airways if they regain power in the House and Senate this fall! Don't believe that statement? Google up, Democratic Senators letter to Disney, and read it yourself. This is a blatant attempt to squash a movie that portrays Bill Clinton in his true light. When the CIA guys in Afganistan had the house where Osama was hiding, surrounded and they put in a call to the White House to see if it was still okay to go in and get him, Our Uncle Billy sid no, right along with Sandy Berger, one of his top aides(NSA?). I guess Bill had other things on his mind, or other parts of his anatomy, another aide under the desk I suspect.
So lets all watch Sunday night and see if ABC retains its newfound supply of intestinal fortitude and goes ahead with its intended showing of Disneys $40 million dollar movie. I am sure it will portray events in a more factual light than that piece of crap by M. Moore, farenheit9/11. BTW, Mr. Bill has been on the phone with the Disney folks trying to get them to rewrite history more favorable to him. I ferverently hope they didn't cave in. Tell it like it WAS, and let the chips fall where they may. TIFN

Reutersgate on Block Island!

Photoshopped! It even happens in the smallest of newspapers. Apparently Adnan Hajii, a photo stringer of Lebanese lineage, has taken up residence on BI under the alias of "Nameless"! I refer to the photo in this weeks newspaper, emblazoned across the front of the paper. In an amazing display of camera wielding, the local bathing pavilion has disappeared into the nether world, and a very nice looking sand dune has appeared in it's place. Is nothing sacred anymore? Why is it necessary to TRY and dupe we who live here with a false representation of actuality? I can't be the only one who has noticed this. I realize that this is a much better view than that of the boxy building, but come on folks, reality would have sufficed. BTW, don't know who Adnan Hajii is? Go to a web site called "Little Green Footballs" and scroll through a few previous posts of the last week or so. You'll find, in the Blogosphere, the only coverage of the fake,(photoshopped) photos by this man sent to Reuters, and then on too the rest of the world giving totally false apprasials of what is going on in the Isreali/Hezbollah war. NOT ONE WORD has been seen in the MSM about these dupliticious actions by AP/Reuters. Their credibility has been shot to hell in my estimation, and I will find it hard to believe anything they put forth in the future, as nothing more than their reconstructed views of what actually happened. Truth be damned! Another BTW, sorry about my prediliction for the use of comma's. I never learned the rules for the correct usage. TIFN

Lets get Political!!

Now here is a subject that about which I think we can all have a little to say. The "Question" I pose is, "What do you think of the candidates that are running for office this time around?" Feel free to speak your mind and say what you really think about how the performance of each of these individuals, if elected, will Effect/Affect ( both uses of the words) the running of the Island. Now let us NOT have any Nasty or Personally derogatory remarks about them. Just how you think they will do, and wether you are going to vote for or against each and why. Let's make the questions/answers well reasoned and hold the vitriol to a minimum. Okay folks let's go! Here is your chance to vent, good or bad!! TIFN

Still Alive and Kickin'

Well, I'm still here on top of the dirt, but have been too busy with my "other job" to do much here. Will get back at it soon enough. Thanks for hanging around.

Taking back the Old Harbor

In the paper yesterday there was a call by some for the town to "take back control of the Old Harbor". Well it is a sentiment that I am in full accord with, but I think it is too late to happen now. It could be done using the eminent domain ploy but the court fight will go on for years 'til either Interstate et al, runs out of money or resolve, or the town does. I think the town will be the one that falters first. That is unless there are some really strong personalities that are in the wings who will come forward and shepard this thing to it's conclusion. To do that though, is going to take a long time commitment by those folks to get themselves elected on a recurring basis, and have the mental and physical wherewithal to finish it. That and the ability to convince the public at large that this is a good thing for the well being of the Island! And at the same time they should still persue the Port Authority concept with relentless vigor. Nevermind what the nay-sayers will counter with, ad nauseum. Maybe THAT, first! Then the town would have some teeth with which to grasp the eminent domain problem with some hope of resolving it fairly quickly. In case you haven't noticed there are now 22 boats a day coming into Old harbor hauling people and freight, and another about to descend on us from New Bedford.

I've been told by some of the people researching the property ownership of the land in front of the National that my family is one of those 19 part owners of said piece. If that is true, I'll state here and now, that in the interests of preserving some semblence of sanity in the down town area, I'll give up my right of ownership to the town provided it can demonstrate that it will in fact, use that right for the furtherance of a viable and well thought out plan for it's usage. It is NOT a piece of land that can be used for much of any kind of commercial venture what with 19 other "partners" to consider. That being the case, maybe an approach of the others by the town with a good "sales pitch", might elicit the same reaction from them.
Now if this is going to happen, it needs to get going soon, as after I'm out of the equation, family commitments and desires may change! TIFN

And Lets not forget This TWO Faced Bastard

That Was Then, This Is Now

John Kerry on the campaign trail, in December 2003, before the Council on Foreign Relations:

I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election.

I have called for the administration to transfer sovereignty, and they must transfer it to the Iraqi people as quickly as circumstances permit. But it would be a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle to speed up the process simply to lay the groundwork for a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops. That could risk the hijacking of Iraq by terrorist groups and former Ba'athists.

Kerry was against cutting and running before he was for it!

Mr Lincoln Chaffee- NOT in his fathers image!

I have been following all the votes of our junior senator and am very dissapointed in what I've seen. He seems to have fallen right into the clutches of the good old Libs. He was the ONLY Republican to vote today, for the "re-deployment" of troops in Iraq. The only one of 39 others all dems. Sounds like he wants to be one.

He has also been sitting on a bill, in his committee, that would end forever that wonderful "death" tax wherein your family has to pay a tax to the government because you had the bad luck or audacity to up and croke out! Bad enough you're gone from them forever, but they rub salt in the wounds by making you sell the house you live in to pay the damned tax! I tell my kids that when it happens to me and they can't pay the money, burn the friggin' house down and ship them some ashes! House ashes that is, not me!

Then there is the issue of him voting for bills with all those wonderful things called "earmarks" whereby any senator can just add on ANY AMOUNT of money they wish for some project in their district and there is NEVER any debate on the subject! Even if voting against such a bill would deprive your own State from gaining some money for a project,I personally think that it would be the right thing to do! Also the MORAL thing to do! Maybe if enough of the people in the Congress had the intestinal fortitude to do this and to hell with the consequences, maybe the people of this country might begin to gain a little more respect for the politicians who they sent down there to look out for their intrests! But NOT at the expense of other folks in the country. Because of people like Congressman Jefferson, Patrick Kennedy and his dumbshit father and quite a few others of questionable integrity, the faith of millions of people in the ability of these bent people to govern us equitably, has been irrepairably damaged. I have absolutely NO regard for nine tenths of the people down there. Chaffee has to go and that is why I WILL vote for Laffey in the primaries. If he doesn't live up to his promises, out he goes on his ass in six years. That should be long enough for anybody anyway. After that, to many "good ole boy" alliances get formed to the detriment of us all. Any bill that comes before them should be debated and voted on strictly on it's merits and not because you 'owe' someone a vote from a previous bill of your choices passage.

So come on all you sinners! Out with the old and corrupt! In with the new and not-quite-so-corrupt!! Another rant to follow some day. TIFN

New Houses and Old politicians

I took a tour, unauthorized, around the lot where the West Side Road Housing Project is being built. The foundations are going in steadily and I think some of the modular units will be arriving this fall sometime. These houses will represent a dream come true for 21 families, or is it 20? Anyway there are a lot of happy folks going to be living there. Yeah we all know that, so you're asking why am I spouting off about it again, right?

Remember when the project was still in it's infancy and our most illustrious,(in his own eyes)councilor tried his best to short circiut the whole process? Well guess what? That self same person wants to become our firt warden so I'm told! This person who didn't care one whit that he was trying to disrupt 20-40 peoples dreams, now wants to have control (imagined) over all of us with his jaundiced decision making processes! If his past performance is a manifestation of what is to come if he gets elected, hold tight to your hat, your wallet and your ass 'cause they are all going to be in jeopardy!

I think it is going to behoove all of us, to take a very close look at all the players who want to be elected to office this fall, and specifically WHY they want to. I don't know who all the people are just yet, but it seems a few from the past want to re-join the fray with their same old tired non-fixes, to the same old problems and to continue the same old croni-ism(sp) that went on for years. You cover and protect my ass and I'll do the same for you no matter how bad you screw the pooch!!! They need to be asked some pointed questions about specific problems and what exactly would they do to fix them! What is THE most glaring and obvious problem staring us in the face? I say it has been the mis-managment or should I say the "non" management of the town. It has been run by seat-of-the pants, off-the-cuff, act-alone, egregious decisions by the Town Manager with little to no input OR repercussions from the GOVERNING council! Where has their oversight disappeared too? Everything is being decided by two or three, and mostly behind closed doors. Why is it allowed to continue? This is not just my feelings about this stuff. I hear it everywhere I go in some form or another.

The towns infra-structure is beginning to fray badly and will soon start to unravel at a faster rate. This council and a few before it have neglected to do anything meanful, about the care and well being of most all of it's buildings. They have got to take the bull by the horns and hire a competent person to spend 40 hours a week performing the required maintenance and upkeep to keep them from falling apart. And you have to pay the person who does it an equitable wage! Minimum wage doesn't cut it. NO ONE can support a family out here on that income!

There are a lot of problems ongoing with the management and running of this berg. Change, and I mean significant change is needed to head off anymore disasters in the making. For starters, a PROFESSIONAL Town Manager! TIFN

Graduation Day at B.I. High

Well here it is another Graduation day on Old BI. Another batch of kids off on their journey through the rest of their lives. I haven't been to a graduation since the last of my four kids began their journey. I was the Chairman of the School Committee at the time, or maybe had just quit after twelve years of doing that job. Can't remember that far back. Anyway it was twenty years ago. So it occured to someone in the school to check and see who the people were who graduated fifty years ago. This is something they have done for quite some time,e.g. mention their names at the present graduation. Every once in a while I would see the names in the paper or have it mentioned in passing. Imagine my chagrin when my name turned up on the list for this year! For the first time in quite a while it really got hammered home just exactly how damned ancient I have become in the intervening period! Damn! 50 years ago! Plus the 17 I spent before that event! Evn i wid mi nw lemitid metal cipassidy caan mak that coom oud two 92! err, 62? 67! thas id!!

So anyway I have been invited to attend this year and will be going. If for no other reason other than to re-inforce to myself that I'm still here on top of the dirt, looking down! I expect that one other of my classmates will be in attendance and that would be Marcelene Conley Mazzur. Of the other three, I know not where two of them are, but the third one, Bob Cyr is somewhere in RI. Hope he makes it. I kind of hope this post will give you reason, as it did me, to think back to a time when things were a lot less hectic than this frenetic time that we now live in. I find myself rushing about doing all the things I want to do before the man with the black hooded suit and the scythe catches up with me! Go too your local school graduation, even if you don't know any of the graduates, and just look at the faces of all those young faces, filled with exuberance and joy, as they head out on their trip through life. It will re-energize you mentally, at least until it's time to take your afternoon nap!! TIFN

Letters! We get Letters!! We get lots and lots of letters!!

I just love fridays! It's when the newspaper comes out and I get all kinds of inspiration to run my mouth. Again this week, there are all the concerned citizens of the west side up in arms about a non-existant TOXIC cloud hanging over their heads. All the time that High Street was all plowed up and torn to hell, everybody pissed and moaned about it and whined about when was it ever going to be finished! Well it is finished, almost! And of all the absolute most treacherous things that could have befallen the the Island, SOMEONE allowed a toxic spewing, lung choking, eye-watering yellow monstrosity, dripping and oozing a contaminating sheet of stinking, sticky, groundwater polluting, concoction of fermented, millions of years old animal guts, bones, and skin, into our sacrosanct water table!! Now I think we should all start packing up our belongings and moving to Nebraska where we can join the masses of deluded and uncouth middle Americans. But back to BI. Mr DuPont, if I were you and I was running an illegal BUSINESS in a residential A zone, I don't think I would be quite so vocal in my criticizisms of a very temporary edifice erection. After all they WILL be gone in due time. I doubt very much that Mr. Miozzi is going to let a many hundred thousand dollar plant sit here for longer than necessary. I believe it is called economic un-viability to let it sit and rot. And so what if was brought here to do the Town Road? Nobody at that time had the foresight to think that others might see these asphalt trucks driving up and down the road and say to themselves,"Jeez, maybe I can get my mudhole driveway paved while it is here"?
And too all the other letter writers who lecture us on what comes out of that plant, why didn't you take the time to go over there, and look at what was going on before you so sanctimoniously pontificated on what YOU KNOW to be the absolute end-all explanation of the emissions coming from the plant? You folks are just going to have to get a grip on reality one of these days. Or maybe not. Lots of people drift thru life with their head up their ass and wonder why they have such a shitty outlook on life. TIFN

Memorial Day

I'm going up to "silent city" this morning as I have for almost all of the years since I retired from the Navy 31 years ago. I go by myself because I don't like to get caught weeping in public. I wind up doing that every time when I get to thinking of all the millions of guys who died defending the US from all who would like to see this one of a kind Democracy eradicated from the face of the earth. Most all of them faced the wars they were going to fight with misgivings as to whether they would ever see their loved ones again. And millions of them didn't. But still they went, and because of them we are able to enjoy to the fullest, the best standard of living and the most freedoms of all kinds,speech, demonstrations without fear of death, religions of all types that go unpersecuted because you dare to practice them. You can rise to the limits of your ability in this country because of those "Defenders of Liberty" and their ultimate sacrifice.

So on this Day, take a minute to bow your head and reflect on just how lucky you were to be born in this country and why it is that so many also want to be a part of this "Grand Experiment"!

I came across this piece on the net and thought it described accurately the feelings of those left behind after a husband, son, or father had given their all to the "CAUSE" of freedom. I say, "Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and soul"!

THIS IS NOT SATIRE

She places the stems in the green plastic vase, and lightly pushes the blooms around until six colors work together. She approaches the stone, careful to avoid treading on the area directly before it. She pushes the spiked end of the vase into the rain-softened soil next to the stone. Her fingers flit across the petals, making slight adjustments, until she brings unity from diversity again. It pleases her to do so. She groans faintly as she stands straight. She steps back to take in the picture. A stone. Brightly dying flowers. Green grass.

Around her, perfect rows of identical stones radiate out, so it seems, from this one. As if they all come together at this point.

“It’s a shame the children can’t be here. Busy lives. They have grown children of their own, lives of their own.”

“I wonder what it would have been like to raise those children with you? To sit next to you at graduation, holding your hand? To see your face when your son said they had named the baby after you? To grow old with you? To trade places, leaving you to stand talking to a stone in a field of stones?”

“It’s a national holiday, you know. We’re remembering the sacrifice of all of them.”

“But I didn’t know the others. I knew you.”

“And I can’t remember the sacrifice. It’s not in the past yet. Because you’re gone, the sacrifice lives on. For me, it’s not a national holiday. It’s your day. It’s my day.”

“Sixty two years I’ve come on this day to say these hard words. It takes me all year to recover the strength to say them again.”

“Thank you.”

“And just in case I don’t make it back next year…”

“Thank you.”

TIFN.

The "Roof" !!

What is that thing rising next to the old Town Hall? Oh yeah, it must be the New Town Hall! I don't think I've ever seen so much roof for a one story building. Is there going to be useable space up in that aerie, you know a room or office or two? Or is that all dead space good only for hiding all those skeletons? I'll bet there is more lumber in it, than in the rest of the building. Now if we had put a nice little saltbox roof on there, we wouldn't have had to appropriate all that extra money. And what is the big assed bird house doing up there? I thought that the final plan agreed on by all concerned eliminated that "little" extra? Was that another of those "executive decisions" implemented by the TM on her own hook? Hmmmm? Well at any rate it is humming right along and in the near future, Mr Hutchins favorite trailer park will disappear only to be replaced by an enlarged version of the old Howard Johnson motel/restaurants along the nations high and by-ways TIFN  

Bait and Switch, and Screw You!!

Well here is another instance of our wonderful Town Council showing their true colors! When the guy who is doing the paving of High Street came before them to get permission to set up his asphalt making plant,TEMPORARILY, in the sandpit on the west side, they told him, " sure bring it right over, you don't need a permit for it." After it had sat there for a few weeks in it's component parts, a few,three or four, of the neighbors decided they didn't like the look of it and for some reason that they pulled out of their asses, made a big stink about how awful it looked and how smelly it was going to be when it went into operation! Well the thing gives off less odor than some of the big deisel trucks that ply the roads around here on a daily basis. So anyway, because the paving contractor, Miozzi Paving, knew he wasn't going to make much money by doing just High Street, he thought he could make it worth his while if he could pick up a few driveway jobs while he was here. Now all of a sudden, either this pussy town council, or the incompetent Town manager or both in COLLUSION, notified Miozzi that he would have to have a permit from the Town in order to do any PRIVATE paving jobs here on the Island!! Can you believe that they are so damned two-faced and spineless,and hypocritical, that they would let those two or three people with the loud mouths, stampede them into such an odiferious,( that means it stinks to high hell!) decision? This reeks of Bob Smith and Mrs.Dodge! It must be a lawyer thing. I would bet all the money that I have that this behind closed doors, and last minute screwing of a private contractor was perpatrated by the two of them on their own. Haven't seen anything about this in the minutes of any of the previous council meetings which is what leads me to believe it is strictly their doing, or that maybe we are again having illegal meetings and decisions emanating from the council chambers. And by the way, having the plant set up on the Island has saved the Town somewhere in the neighborhood of $21K on just the High Street project! This is just the worst case and form of ingratitude I've seen in a long time. Geez, I wonder if it had anything to do with the Depot parking lot being paved? Seems like that instance got some peoples noses bent out of shape 'cause THEY didn't get to vote on it. This town and most all of it's boards have become havens for those people with Bonaparte complexes and their over-riding desire to control and have a say in EVERY stupid little action that takes place. I am fed up to the gills with all the Assholes who have arrived here on the Island over the years and think that we hick's living here are unable to survive with out their visionary and enlightened leadership!! Jesus H Christ, go back where you came from and leave us the hell alone! We did alright for 300-400 years. TIFN

Up next: What's this "secret", letter of agreement that has been bandied back and forth between the town manager and some un-named conservation group. How bad is it that it has to be discussed behind closed doors and in executive session? Would it not be in the best intrests of the people of the town to have it discussed openly? I'll be back when I know something of what's happening! Toodle!

Sweepin' and such

Some of you might know that for the last three of four months, I have been volunteering some time at the school to sweep the new gym floor on a daily basis. It has amazed me just how much crap gets tracked onto it! One day while the new addition was nearing completion, I was engaged in conversation with one of the members of the School Committee and he was lamenting the lack of someone who could keep the the building in good repair and looking good. He said that, that someone needed to go through the building to discover just exactly what was wrong with it and how to get it fixed. So I told him I'd think about it for awhile and see if I could suggest someone. No names came to mind in over three weeks but one. Mine!

So I undertook to do as he requested and with the, tenous agreement of the S/C, have rooted around in all the little "holes" in the basement and every nook and cranny I could get myself into. What it all amounts to is that we have a brand new $7 M addition to an $8-10 M older building put together in two building episodes,that is in dire need of lots of tender loving care. Over the years the lack of someone dedicated to the upkeep and repair of the physical plant, has lead to it's being on the verge of becoming unusable. There is a huge list of things that need to be fixed/repaired. Some of them need to be done yesterday!

So this coming monday evening I'll be bringing my pile of problems and reccomendations to the S/C for some sort of resolution.It will take some soul searching on each of their parts to come to a decision that will hopefully put the old place back on a track that will see it still useful to the future generations of Island kids. I went to that school for all of my twelve years of public education, and I hope it will be there for my grandchildrens grandchildren. A lot of really fine people started on their road to elucidation in that beautiful old building.TIFN

New Swimming Pool!

Yep! I've got one IN my house this year. First we bitched all winter about how far we were behind in the accumulated water department. "The ground water level is going down fast" we cried! "OMg we might have water problems again this summer" we lamented. Well guess what? For anyone not living along the RI shore, we have reduced our water deficit to an over abundance of same commodity! I'm up to my ass in it down in my new pool. eerr, cellar! Pumps and vacuums going full bore and all of my model planes want to become amphibians. For the last eight days I believe, we have not even had a glimpse of the sun. It must be restricted to SPI in Texas where Sam, the Wiff&Poofs guy, says it was up to 100 the other day. Or was that 100% hum-ditty? But that would be rain huh? duh.

Anyway, I keep on trucking,aah bailing, and hope that we will soon be able to put out the tomato and pepper plants that are threatening to break through the glass of the greenhouse in order to find some sun. Onward and Upward! TIFN

New Highway

I see that there is a nice new dirt road here on the Island. I'm assuming, (bad thing to do), that it was one of the Conservancy groups that owns the old Preston Dunn property out on the cliffs past Black Rock, that had it built. I'm told it was done so that rescue vehicles could access that property from the main road. It certainly was a risk too the vehicles if you went in through Snake Hole road. So after all that work, I understand that it will be blocked off to anyone else but Conservancy and or service/rescue vehicles. I have also heard throught the inimitable BI grapevine that they are concerned about the proliferation of "rogue trails" on that property and that they intend to restrict access to that form of trespass also. So if all the property owners who own the Snake Hole road access suddenly decide to restrict travel over their right of way too just homeowners and service vehicles, where does that leave all the would be fishermen, surfer dudes, and sunday walkers nee birdwatchers. I was always under the impression that this "preserved" land was for the use of the public, but only in ways that didn't destroy the reasons it was saved in the first place!

What is up with all these Conservation groups? Most times shortly after they acquire a piece of the Island, it becomes off limits to the general public except on their own strict rules that "let" you trespass. Witness the old Beane property and Hodge properties. For years my family used to go out there, the Beane property, with their permission, to have picnics swimming, clamming etc. Shorty after the confiscation by the Feds, it turned into a private little "get-a-way" enclave strictly for their use and little signs popped up all over the beach threatening you with prosecution if you dared to trespass on "their" land. For generations the original owners let Islanders travel over their land freely as long as you closed the gates etc. after yourself. Now you have to practically have to have a signed pass from god, whoever that is. Comments anyone? TIFN