YUBA Fire

Taken from our deck on August 15, 2008 @ 4:00 PM

Let it snow...and watch “Wall Street”...

Here it is February 11th in Nevada County’s “frontier” and it’s snowed enough this evening to knock out both satellite dishes. The electricity is on and the wood stove is blazing so what else to do? We decided to watch one of our favorite DVD’s...”Wall Street” given today’s report about the ineptness of Sacramento and Washington, DC. Could the pre-election financial crisis of September have been manufactured to manipulate the outcome of the November 2008 election? ..........Let it snow.

Nevada County Priorities?

An article, County attacks Scotch broom, appeared in the local newspaper last Thursday the 29th about Nevada County's Agricultural Commissioner intent to send a letter to California's Food and Agricultural Department asking for help in getting rid of Scotch broom.  A noble cause but with so many businesses closing down (Weaver Auto, Heidman's, etc.) or leaving (GV Ford Lincoln, Thomson?) shouldn't all efforts be directed towards development instead of pursuing grant money from a state that's billions of dollars in the hole?  Doesn't it make sense for County officials to publicly get behind projects like the Idaho-Maryland Mine and similar job creating efforts than spinning their wheels seeking grant money that isn't there?

We Want a Divorce

I received the following from a good friend and thought others would enjoy it:

We Want a Divorce.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists, Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences, and go our own ways.

Here is a model dissolution agreement. Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. We don't like re-distributive taxes so you can keep them. You are alsowelcome to keep the liberal judges and the ACLU.

Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA, and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore, and Rosie O'Donnell (you are however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move them). We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart, and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies, and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan Hockey Moms, greedy CEOs, and Rednecks.

We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

You can make nice with Iran, Palestine, and France, and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or way of life are under assault, we'll protect them militarily.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian Values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, and Shirley McClain. You can have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill. We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks, and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volvo, Subaru and Yugo you can find. You can give everyone healthcare, that is if you can find any practicing doctors (that is“practicing”, Howard Dean) who will follow to your turf. We'll continue to believe health care is a luxury and not a right.

We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and The National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach The World To Sing, Kum Ba Ya, or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics, and you can give trickle up poverty its best shot. Since it often so offends you. we'll also keep our History, our Name, and our Flag.

Would you agree to this? In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you ANWAR on who will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall, American Law Student

More sales tax revenue leaving Grass Valley

Heard around town today that Grass Valley Ford Lincoln - Mercury will probably be relocating to Auburn after the first of the year.  Staff are going to be let go but can reapply 'down there'. Seems like a great business opportunity for GV Ford since Maita's sudden closure in September and with the next closest Ford dealer being in Roseville.

With Jim Kiel Chevrolet closing two years ago and the Weaver Dealership last Friday how prepared is Grass Valley City for another major sales tax revenue loss?

On Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama

Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, former Chief of Staff, a life long Republican and an African American endorses Obama who lacks leadership experience in military and foreign affairs.  Think about it.  Contrary to the spin of the media, it's not about Powell and Obama being black or that he really thinks Obama is qualified but about Powell being the opportunist hoping to garner a position of power and authority in the inexperienced Obama Administration should it win on November 4th.  He sold himself out.

Globull Warming

Serious wisdom from George Carlin on "Globull Warming" found here puts all the hysteria in perspective. Enjoy!!

Hospitals won’t be paid for “preventable errors”

Since the mainstream media doesn’t pick up on such newsy items I must share this with you.

According to the Kansas City Business Journal in an article of last Wednesday, July 16:

As of Oct. 1, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City no longer will reimburse hospitals for complications resulting from certain preventable medical errors.

The news, which the insurer released Wednesday, comes in the wake of a similar announcement last year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS said that beginning Oct. 1, it will stop paying for eight so-called never events, which it defined as “serious and costly errors in the provision of health care services that should never happen.”

Blue Cross said it no longer will reimburse hospitals for complications resulting from the following serious preventable medical events:
• Sudden artery blockage, or embolism, from air bubbles introduced during surgery.
• Objects left inside a patient during surgery.
• Use of the wrong blood type during transfusions.
• Urinary tract infections associated with catheters.
• Pressure ulcers (bed sores).
• Infections from central vein catheters.
• Mediastinitis, an often fatal surgical-site infection of lung tissue.
• Hospital-acquired injuries, such as fractures, dislocations, head and crushing injuries, and burns.

And, all these years, I had been under the impression that the insurance companies and those in charge of the Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs had had the business sense to not pay for obvious shoddy work. Good Grief!

Makes one wonder what California insurance companies and the bureaucrats in Sacramento are doing.

Lipitor for 8 year olds?

Fox News ran a story this morning about the American Pediatric Association's recommendation that the cholesterol drug Lipitor should be given to children as young as 8-years old. Wrong solution for a problem caused by poor diets and the lack of exercise. Instead, the junk food should be replaced by a healthy diet in conjunction with unplugging the computer games and pushing the children outdoors to play like we did as kids. It's a sign of the times we live in today.

Tattoo Muses

While waiting in check out lines at our local shops I people watch. Today it seems that everyone except those of us over 50 and young children have tattoos. While growing up in the Midwest in the 1950s I remember that the only people sporting tattoos back then were most likely World War II veterans or members of motorcycle gangs.

Yesterday, at the Grass Valley Post Office, I saw a woman with a couple of half moons tattooed on the back of her heels. And, a few weeks ago at a grocery self checkout counter another gal had what appeared to be a bar code on her forehead which might be her way of telling us that we’re all ‘just a number’ in today’s world.

It seems that everyone who is “hip” today from the young first time mothers to their “early” grandparents has a tattoo. And, not much of the artwork is original or of very good quality.

Do any of these people think about what their artwork will look like in a few short years as their body ages? What will they think when their children look at them someday and ask them what statement they were trying to make?

There seems to be a lot of followers and not many leaders today.