I am not losing sleep over $122 in Nerf footballs

So, the big news was the IRS targeting Tea Party groups and stonewalling them non-profit status. Then it turned into a slow disclosure that it wasn't only right wing conservative groups that were given the run around, but also groups that sat on the left.

Today the IRS witch hunt is focusing on the minions, the credit card holders, that charged wine, porn, thomas the tank engine wristlets, and yes, $122 in Nerf footballs that ended up in a filing cabinet.

The minions are peanuts.  Low level managers who probably attended seminars on how to raise employee morale-seminars that were expensive studies funded by the taxpayer, and thought they were doing the right thing by buying wristbands and footballs.

The other small stuff, personal items, comes from a keeping up with the joneses mentality of some lower level employee who works harder than their boss and wants to live at least as well as the boss does, so they justify a little extravagant charge for themselves.

What REALLY gets my goat is CMP getting 80 MILLION taxpayer dollars to "upgrade" under the guise of "stimulus" because the upgrade will save ratepayers 20 million dollars.

Well, my regular reader might recall that that 80 MILLION dollars went into installing "smart meters", and if you opted out, you had to pay an ADDITIONAL $12 a month to keep your smart meter.

So, guess what? CMP blew the 80 mill, plus a bit more, and now taxpayers aren't going to save a damn cent, nope, in fact, CMP has asked the PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION for a rate increase to cover the difference. 

Yup, we paid 80 million for smart meters, and now more for rates.

$122 for nerf footballs? that's almost as much as I am paying a year NOT to have the smart meter.

oh, and my concern over smart meters spying on my electricity consumption? who cares?  The new land sat put into orbit will record every INCH of the EARTH's surface over the course of several days, and keep it up for ever.  It has infared capabilities, and can see to the bottom of the ocean.

Sleep with your dog? Have guests over regularly? Have a barn full of animals? Digging out a prep cellar?
This info will be available.  You will not get away with anything, and if you do, I imagine it can and will be held against you in a court of law. Secret or public. Or in the eyes of robot drones, soon to be released.

Sweet dreams.

i informed you Thusly

spoken not with satisfaction but in a manner of bemoanment, disgust, angst.

It's sort of like feeling like your dog needed to go outside to the bathroom but thinking maybe he just wanted to sniff the breeze, and finding a big pile of steaming crap the hard way-barefoot-by the back door shortly thereafter.

then you're on a hot street, your harmless goofy pet suddenly proves your subconcious is functioning optimally.

what else might be possible>

and how on earth does one arrive at these conclusions? sniff the dirt? tingle on the spine?
what are they reading, who are they listening to, who are they talking to?

How in the hell did they arrive at that conclusion given that series of information?

well, crap, out of the millions of humans that can make connections, if any of us are set aside for closer scrutiny, muy compleando!

makes one wonder what makes us worth the effort? with all the advances in profiling, if anyone warranted a second look, they must be grander than they could ever have thought possible..

Tree 2013

SO.  I like to tell it as I see it, and I like to keep where I saw it personal.  In other words, I have always felt the way my brain works is a trade secret, personal property, and so on.

Through the years I have seen an information tightening. 

The digital age has enabled it.  Even libraries keep track of what you check out, When was the last time you were able to tuck down in the stacks and shuffle through several books and then reshelve them without drawing the ire of one of the librarians?

What search engine do you use? They like to collect your data to sell to advertisers, what's wrong with uncle sammy having a peek?

Boy, if I had access to ALL the information, the truth, which is my mantra, what accurate conclusions I might draw!

So. I am unwilling to comes to conclusions at this time.  I have seen some signs.  I have sniffed some dirt. Read everything they will let you. Watch the skies.  Sniff some dirt. come to peace with yourself.

Ha ha

Teach your children

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

Crosby, Stills & Nash
written by Graham Nash

June 3, 2013

Tree

Welcome June

"In these divine pleasures permitted to me of walks in the June night under moon and stars, I can put my life as a fact before me and stand aloof from its honor and shame."
-  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals 

“There are moments, above all on June evenings, when the lakes that hold our moons are sucked into the earth, and nothing is left but wine and the touch of a hand.”
-  Charles Morgan