We’ve put the house I grew up in on the market. (Or … almost. I think it officially goes on the market tomorrow.)
Pigweed and I (and some friends) just got back from Big Meadows, in Shenandoah National Park. That was fun. One of the trails had a couple nice waterfalls, and one of them had a swimming hole at the bottom. It was cold, but refreshing!
The wildlife is so tame in the park that the deer will walk right past you, and even the birds will come pick around just next to your feet. A raven flew right through out camp, which was cool. All the campsites have bear boxes in which you are required to store all your food whenever you are not in camp.
The weather was lovely. While it was in the 90s in the D.C. area, it was 75 in the mountains, and in the low 60s at night.
We usually end our camping trips with breakfast at a diner, or some mom and pop restaurant, and I almost always get eggs and scrapple. It’s the only time I eat scrapple, which I really enjoy, but know is not good for me.
Pigweed and I tried to listen to Nature by Henry David Thoreau on the drive home. What a load of horse manure that thing is! We’re going to do a P&C episode on it soon.
I try to unplug when I go away, and now I’m slipping back into regular life, and catching up on the latest.
- Cuomo has resigned. I think that’s a good thing.
- An absurd $1.1 trillion bill pretending to be about infrastructure has passed. That’s bad. I hope every Republican who went along with this nonsense is removed from office. In fact, I want everyone Senator and every Congressman removed from office, and all the Congressional staff fired and banned from ever working for the federal government again. (Not just for this.)
Nothing else of great importance seems to have happened, but if I missed something, please feel free to bring it up in the comments.
QUOTE: I hope every Republican who went along with this nonsense is removed from office. In fact, I want everyone Senator and every Congressman removed from office, and all the Congressional staff fired and banned from ever working for the federal government again.
If only! It should have happened long ago…especially those who were suppose to be fiscal hawks but allowed the national debt to rise by almost $7.8 trillion during the previous administration.
QUOTE: An absurd $1.1 trillion bill pretending to be about infrastructure has passed. That’s bad. .
Have you read the bill? If so, what makes it bad?
No one has read the bill, and that makes it bad.
How do you know it’s not been read by anyone? Typically, the aides read large bills and summarize and brief members of Congress. If so, that might be sufficient in this case.
Over the last decades, the pattern has been clear. Legislators vote on bills and later discover what’s in them. There’s no reason to think this is any different — especially given the size of the bill.
I’m not sure that’s totally accurate. They may not read them word for word, but the typical pattern is for the bill to be summarized by staff and Congress briefed. We don’t know if this pattern didn’t occur in this case.
That said, for me, the better judge of good or bad is how the money is allocated and utilized. I’ll guess we’ll have to wait to see what actually happens. Citizens who have concerns should advocate to have the bill publicly released and then read the full bill. As well, who knows, it could be like other funding authorized by Congress…not fully spent.
My feelings about nature are well represented by this comic strip: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/160
The last time I got drawn into one of those excursions into nature was a long time ago. I couldn’t wait to get back home and hit the books. As for Thoreau, I never to get what the big deal was about his writings. But if people get off on them or on “nature,” more power to them, as long as they don’t get preachy in my presence.
Another piece of news is that big government in Florida is cracking down on local government. So much for the GOP’s claim to be against big government.
*I never did get