Icewind's Ramblings

It was an interesting State of the Union speech tonight . . . Wrap things in the American Flag, throw in our great military men & women, and add some things about unity and greatness . . . we must be doing pretty damn good right now. I'll probably blog about it but let's see . . . 3 years of promises, out of control spending on borrowed dollars, massive unemployment . . . I thought it was a fairly confrontational speech going after the partisan other side.  It made a direct reference to Mitt Romney’s 15% taxes and used the charisma of his speaking abilities to ask American for a second chance.  It seemed like he was saying I have for the most part pissed away the last three years but hey look, the economy might be in a small rebound so give it another look.  I am sure the young will get all worked up in the same vein that John Kennedy’s speaking did for a nation so many years ago.  The problem is that time period is long gone and the world is so much differ...

America is all about celebrating our freedoms and differences.  I believe the American people are getting wiser.  I hope so anyway, and I'm sure that there are those that would beg to differ, and that's ok, too.  Here's the thing that you have to realize during this election process.  Any candidate for the Presidency must raise a shitload of money in order to get the job.  That's just a fact.  It has been that way for many years now and probably will not change anytime soon even with the revisions in elections laws. Another fact this is often missed by the public is that the candidate owes these people for contributing enough to get him or her elected. I would like a list of donors from each candidate before the elections are done.  I think that would actually be a better way to tell who to vote for.  It shows more of the people and special interest groups and how much they are willing to pay to have a certain side in office. Those are the...

This morning I was watching Today Show and they did a really good piece looking back at this past year.   It covered almost any topic you can think of from world events, economy, sports, celebrities, deaths, and it was beautifully done.   I came away with several thoughts about the video and also about my own year in review. The most striking thing that jumped out at me was how much chaos and trouble there is all over the world.   The many conflicts going on in so many different regions and how they never seem to be resolved and continue year after year. The natural disasters that happened this past year seem almost unprecedented with the numerous earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and droughts to affect so many countries and people.   One could almost think the ‘end of times’ was marching quickly and everyone needs to take a look at their lives and how they are living it.   It is an interesting ‘what if’ thought process when you look at what the Bible says...

It was many years ago since the embarrassing day when a young woman, with a baby in her arms, entered a butcher shop and confronted the butcher with the news that the baby was his and asked what was he going to do about it. Finally, he offered to provide her with free meat until the boy was 16. And she readily agreed. The butcher had been counting the years off on his calendar and one day the teenager who had been collecting the meat each week, came into the shop and said, "I'll be 16 tomorrow." "I know," said the butcher with a smile, "I've been counting too. Tell your mother, when you take this parcel of meat home, that it is the last free meat she'll get and watch the statement on her face." When the boy arrived home he told his mother. The woman nodded and said, "Son, go back to the butcher and tell him I have also had free bread, free milk and free groceries for the last 16 years and watch the statement on his face . . . !"...

When you join the military or are elected to public office you take an oath to protect the country from both foreign and domestic enemies which is part of our Constitution. Throughout history world powers nearly always fall from within. We may be going that same route as we look for ways to get involved in all the world’s conflicts when we cannot take care of things on our own home front.   We have invaded Libya to stop another nutcase from killing his own people as we watch over the country’s oil fields without taking anything for our efforts to stop the violence in that country.   It has been that way in all of our Middle Eastern protective missions. Does that make us a stupid country?   The foreign oil is there for us to take as part payment for helping countries gain freedom from dictators who think nothing of killing their own people.   Within our own borders exists 1,000 to 2,500 years worth oil and gas.   We have hamstrung ourselves from using it and...

It has been over a week now that the events in Japan has cause so much heartache and change to so many people.   Where do they go from here to move forward with their lives?   How many will never find family or loved ones swept out to sea or buried within tons of rubble or mud in the communities heavily effected by the earthquake and the following tsunami?   I’ve said many times that music is a common thread for many people and as I have sat and watched the news footage and listened to the commentary of the aftermath in dealing with so many problems and obstacles I turn to music to help ease my mind and search for understanding which may never come. One song over the years seems to say so much for each of us as we may sometimes be full of ourselves or have an incident to shake us and wake up and adjust our attitude to the ‘real world’ around us.   It is “Part of the Plan” by the late great Dan Fogelberg.   His music over the years has affected so many peop...

I’ve said it before . . . one of the problems with elections is eventually after all the fliers, commercials, rally’s, and finger pointing . . . you have to elect someone. How did it come to a time when you are voting for the ‘lesser’ of evil in the candidates? Many a long hard fought battles have taken place in this country . . . and it is from Gettysburg that we were reminded: “. . . It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.   It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” November 19,...

Tomorrow is another election day and things are still in turmoil.   I see signs that ask “How’s that ‘Change’ going for you?” and “Yes we can!”   At times I wonder it the changes that have taken place are really changes at all. It’s well nigh impossible to assess the true character of a human heart . . . even one’s own.   We use words (Oh, so many words!) to describe our selves, our wants, desires, ideals (and imperfections) to others.   We go through life “self-characterized”, for the most part.   The face we reveal to the world is the face we primp and preen to present.   It sounds like a woman thing but it fits our thinking. Words are our cosmetics. I don’t really have a problem with that.   I believe most of us want to embody our ideals.   I believe we humans, for the most part, want to live peaceful, loving, noble lives.   We certainly tell ourselves that, often enough.   We assure others we are peaceful, honest, loving and ...

Remember back before the election during all of the campaigning and coverage of the presidential primaries how MSNBC was gushing all over Barack Obama? Well it is interesting now a year later to see how things have changed.  Its not the same now as reality sinks in.  Did you watch Obama's TelePrompTer reading last night?  What a mess we are in and a joke of a speech.  I couldn’t watch all of it because my bullshit meter kept going off and pegging the “get out your chest waders” because we are in deep shit.  He didn't read anything that was unexpected. Holding BP accountable.                        Yep we’ve heard that for 58 days now. We've been on the job from day 1.      Yep typical ‘no urgency’ gov’nment job. Clean up the Gulf Coast .                ...

I guess we can chalk up another reason why things are so out of control in Washington .  Has this happened to you lately? Did you receive in the mail recently a letter telling us we were going to get our census forms in another week?  Postage for the millions of letters going out even at a reduced rate is still a ton of cash . . . gone. Then the census forms arrived.  This is more postage but necessary to find out where everyone lives and how many are in the houses for funding purposes. This afternoon, I received a post card telling me that I should have received my census form and to please fill it out and mail it back.  Another costly reminder for millions of Americans to do what is expected of us in the first place. These are the same people that the Democrats are putting in charge of health care that passed yesterday. What could possibly go wrong with that mess? I get the warm fuzzys from our folks in Washington DC . Ice

Crazy here in Anchorage with a little snow, the Iditarod start and working on the shower all weekend so not much time to write so I’ll post this one that I saw on Grouchy Old Cripple (GOC) site and could not resist replaying it here. I didn't check the numbers, but even so, CFC was a liberal wet dream and I know how liberal wet dreams always turn out.  They waste money and don't accomplish much.  In fact, they usually make things worse. A 15 mpg clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A 25 mpg vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.  (Actually, I think it saved even less than that...GOC) They claim 700,000 clunkers were turned-in, so that's 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption. Mor...

How are we doing? With health care and the struggling economy on the minds of most Americans right now I wanted to think back almost a year ago and see if you come up with the same answer I did about our first out of the box stimulus program.  Remember Cash for Clunkers ? Question? What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program? ANSWER: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road. With many people still out of work it is now probably about the time that all of those vehicles are being repossessed and a second round of ‘deals’ can be had by those lucky people who get a second chance for those vehicles. Living the Life now, aren’t we? Ice

And so did the ditch divers who cannot drive worth a crap. The front came through and with it a nice steady snowfall covering the frost on everything the last two weeks and as those who make their way to work in the darkness forgot some of the tenants of safe driving.  The main on is slow down lest you end up in the ditch or overturned with that unique view upside down sliding to a scary stop hoping someone else doesn’t hit you.  Another is turn of cruise control on icy roads as they can make you veer off the highway when the tires hit uneven ice on the road making the false sense of slowing down when it just spins those tires until you hit the brake spinning you out of control. After the front stalled over Anchorage it produced some nice fluffy large snowflakes which was pretty to watch once the light of day came but caused major traffic tie ups along the Glenn Highway which was closed for several hours due to out of control vehicles.  It was a long commute ...

I enjoy listening to the rants that Lewis Black (comedian) gives us about politics and the American way of life.  His insight is thought provoking, and extremely funny.  He can be seen on cable channels and does concerts around the country.  There is even one on the History Channel about the Thanksgiving holiday which has many other comedians giving their thoughts from varying backgrounds and religions. Anyway this one rings true and is funny! “Republicans have nothing but bad ideas and Democrats have no ideas.” “A republican stands up in Congress and says 'I GOT A REALLY BAD IDEA!!' and the democrat stands up after him and says 'AND I CAN MAKE IT SHITTIER!!'” Lewis Black There is a lot of truth in those statements! Ice

Last week there was the big news that Oprah is retiring from her talk show after 20 + years giving everyone information, book reviews and an occasional prize or two for her loyal fans who were in the studio to see her. Over the years she has tried to stimulate the economy as in the big car giveaway to her audience in 2004 where everyone in her studio opened a gift box with the key to a new automobile inside.  She was helping the auto industry long before they needed their bailout.  Probably better than that forty five hundred bucks the Government gave out. Has anyone ever heard of writing off charity on your taxes?  Hmmmm . . . pretty sure you can or put it as a “business expense.”  In 2008 she made 385 million dollars . . . that could potentially buy 1,428 people a new Cadillac Escalade while still having 285 million left over . . . so essentially she could afford to have all of us drive a new car with enough left over to buy plenty of Black Angus burgers and...

Politics lately have been really boring with all the in fighting between all parties on almost any talking point.  No one is happy about the Health Care proposals and the stimulus money is being squandered away like many people thought it would be with little oversight or accountability. The economy is in disarray with the jobless rate continuing to rise “as things are getting better” and the vehicle rebate program flooded the nation with scrap metal and the upcoming wave of repossessions as those who traded in cannot afford to make the payments. “Change” was promised and that is what we have received . . . like it or not. I am into being positive each day and sometimes you need those little positive affirmations to set the tone for the upcoming day.  Tony Robbins says those things help break the cycle of negativity and can change habits and thought processes. Here is my daily routine when I get up in the morning before heading off to work.  I grab my cup of coffee...

We have all by now seen that a jump start to help the economy was needed and the Federal ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program seems to be filling the bill as many people are going out and trading in their older vehicles. There has not been many things to bring a smile to our faces and to me this program may not be all that it is cracked up to be with the Government borrowing another 2 Billion dollars from China to keep the program going a little longer. That really makes no sense to me as that money just flows through the car dealerships and back out the door overseas since there is no limit on just USA made vehicles. If we at least Buy American the money can stay in America where we can benefit from the sales. I am not a big fan of the UAW but at least they can keep working producing over priced gas guzzling vehicles. A man who is having gas problems explains to his doctor that every time he farts it sounds like Honda. The doctor does an examination and finds ...

Here is another one from my ‘working folder’. To pass the time here in The Last Frontier many people play board games or cards to make the day or night go by a little quicker. Winter time this is especially true as the many hours of darkness and the extreme cold can seem like time stands still or crawls along at a snails pace. Here is a little ditty from one of our recent games . . . Wife: There! I just added four letters to your word and covered the triple-word score. Thirty-three points! Ice: Ummm, dear . . . do you know what that word means? Wife: Don't worry, it's a word . . . I looked it up in the Scrabble dictionary. Ice: I wasn't questioning whether it's a word. I was just curious if you knew its meaning. Wife: It's one of those Italian ice creams, or something . . . right? Ice: No, that would be GELATO. FELLATIO is more like a Popsicle. Life from a ‘Northern Exposure’ . . . we always find a little l...

In my travels to Mexico recently you have the opportunity to see how the airlines are doing during this economy and how hard they are working to keep things positive for the passengers. Our group was broken up between several airlines and flights with the Alaska group flying on Alaska Airlines with a layover in Seattle each way. Some of the flights I have made into Seattle have been entertaining as there is usually a pretty decent wind blowing across the runway giving a chance for the pilot to either show off his great skill in bringing several tons of pressurized metal tube full of people down smoothly or allowing the elements to win that landing with a bounce, hard drop, or a controlled crash. One of our flights with Alaska Airlines was both entertaining and slightly different. It was our return leg from Cancun to Seattle where we had a male/female flight crew along with a mixed steward staff taking care of us after a fun week in the sun and warmth of Mexico ....

The last couple of days in Cancun have been a much needed break so everyone has been hanging out around the hotel soaking up sun, tropical breezes, and resting. The hotel is packed full of people from all over the world and it still does not seem overly crowded. There are several swimming pools, the beach front lounges and palm tree covered paths filled with chairs or lounges to relax in. Our group seems to have splintered into about three groups each finding a different portion of the property to relax and enjoy the sun. It’s funny with Anchorage being a relative small town so with this group everyone knows each other or has worked at one time or another for the different companies represented here. With a few of us there has been ‘history’ with each other providing some of the divisions it seems. It has also been a time for some of us to reflect on past ill feelings and talk to repair friendships once again which has been great while with others you can see there is...