a dirt biker walks into a bar..

a dirt biker walks into a bar..

Where i live there are a lot of harley riders.. they cruise around on the weekends, go up to jerome, ride around in the mountains.. and just get out & enjoy the road. I always wave to them, but many are hanging on so tight they can't wave back. But i figure we are kindred spirits.. wild motorcycle riders with the wind in our hair & bugs in our teeth.

One time, i decided to drop into a harley bar. I had never been to one, & thought it would show solidarity with my 2 wheeled comrades.. we could cuss the cagers & debate the merits of oil. So i got on my hog.. well.. a yamaha 250 dirt bike, but it's MY hog.. and as usual, with me it is ATGATT*.. i had on my dual sport helmet, compression jacket, moto boots (white), knee braces & moto pants. I usually wear a leather jacket over my compression suit when going on adventure rides. I had on street gloves, with the carbon fiber knuckles. So i go in all suited up, to show that i'm a real biker, too. I even backed my bike into the parking lot like they do. I see the harley guys giving me mean stares.. must be a local custom to look tough, so i adapt & look mean, too. I belly up to the bar & order a beer. Before i get it, a couple of guys come over & start pushing me. At first, i'm surprised, but then i realize they must be helping me test out my gear! So to get into the spirit of it, i run into them, & they pick me up & throw me across a table. Furniture is breaking up like a western saloon brawl, and i get up, unhurt. I raise my hands to show i'm ok, & a couple of other guys grab me & throw me across some other tables & chairs. I get up again, the gear is doing it's job.

This goes on for a few minutes, but i'm starting to get tired of it. I know they mean well, & are certainly enthusiastic about helping me test the gear, but i'm getting a few bruises & the landings are taking it's toll. It's hard to speak with all the commotion, so i just run outside & jump on my bike.

They are into it, & follow me. They want to go on a ride, now! Well, i was glad for that, as the gear testing was starting to wear me out. Nothing like a good ride to clear the mind. I take off, with about a dozen guys following. I come upon a steep hill with some stairs down, & even though you're not supposed to ride on stairs, i figure the harley guys are rebellious & would enjoy some law breaking. So i turn & start thumping down the stairs. They follow, but some of them have trouble on the stairs.. about 5 or 6 of them fall over & their bikes slide on the hill. But many of them make it, & keep following.

Now i've got to think of another challenging section for our ride. I forgot my camera, so won't be able to post this in my ride reports, but it's still a fun ride. I remember some single track down the road, up the mountain & past the switchbacks. I have to slow down a lot to keep them in sight in the switchbacks, but i realize riders are at different stages in their riding ability so i wait for them. Finally i get to the single track. I turn down the trail, and only 2 follow. The rest turn back.. already tired? We're just getting started! This section has some rocks.. big rocks.. you have to pick a line & keep up your momentum. It is a short section, & comes out on an easy dirt road that i can go back home on. When i look back, there is no one following. I was paying pretty close attention to my own riding, & didn't watch what they were doing. They probably turned back, too.

So i went on home, but remember fondly the time when a big group of harley riders helped me test my gear.

* All the gear, all the time

The City Occupation

The City Occupation
to the tune of big rock candy mountain..



One evening as the sun went down, and the city fires were burning,
To the park came a homeless walker, and he said boys I'm not turning,
I'm headed for a place that's down the street, beside financial station,
So come with me & we'll go and see, the city occupation.

In the city occupation, there's a land that's fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes, and you sleep out every night.
Where every street is Easy, and the sun shines every day,
On the birds and bees and the cigarette trees,
near the latte springs where the minstrel sings,
no ticks or fleas & you do as you please,
in the city occupation.

in the city occupation, all the cops have wooden legs,
the police dogs all have rubber teeth, and the hens lay soft boiled eggs.
there's picnic tables full of food, and coolers full of beer,
Well I'm bound to go where there's pot & blow,
where the rain don't flow and there ain't no snow,
where the girls are easy & the narcs don't know,
in the city occupation.

in the city occupation, you never change your socks,
and the little streams of alcohol, come a tricklin' down the rocks.
The rapists all are mellow, and the rent-a-cops are blind,
There's a lake of stew and a whisky too,
you can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe,
where you crap on cars with a man from mars,
in the city occupation.

In the city occupation, the jails are made of tin,
And you can walk right out again, as soon as you are in.
There ain't no employment office, no fryer grease or grills.
I'm a-going to stay where ya sleep all day,
Where the parents pray & the liberals pay,
Where they hung the jerk who invented work,
In the city occupation.

A Balance of Ideology

In america we tend to overestimate the importance of the prez. They are not all powerful, & their influence is balanced by other checks in the system. Of course, recent presidents have overstepped their authority with executive orders, but that is another argument. Congressional & senate reps tend to have more direct accountability with the electorate. The founders wanted reps to have a 2 yr term, so they would have to face their constituents & justify their job. Lincoln had a good quote about the presidency:

While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years. ~Abraham Lincoln

The decisions for the overall direction of the country will be made by the house & senate, too. It can be a slow, painful, & heated process. Decision making, especially on major directions for the nation is not easy. It requires a lot of public debate & hopefully that debate will not be short circuited, and major decisions rammed down the public's throat without full scrutiny. That is the primary complaint regarding obamacare. It was not debated clearly, or time given to examine all the details & consequences of the plan. It was not a tax, now it is a tax. It would not raise your taxes 'one dime', & now it looks like it will be more like hundreds of dimes. It is still vague & costs & consequences are unknown.

The point is that majorities of political ideology are not always good. They will sometimes have simplistic views about their darling projects, without the scrutiny or skepticism of the opposition. Sometimes it is better for the country if there is a balance of ideological differences.. more time must be taken in public discourse to examine the issues. The public can become better informed, & a wiser direction can be chosen.

Entitlements. Payback, or free stuff?

The largest part of the us budget are the entitlements. Those contribute more to the deficit than any other discretionary spending or the defense budget. Many of these entitlements were supposed to be self supporting. You paid into them, & when the time came, you collected. So why are they in trouble? If they are set up like an insurance program, you have actuarial numbers, statistics, & can determine what the premium needs to be to collect a certain amount. Insurance actuaries have done this for centuries, and made a profit. Why cannot the govt make simple mathematical calculations even with no profit?

The problem is that the govt has changed the program from a simple actuarial calculation to a pyramid scheme. They began to pay out more than was warranted by the amount paid in. These entitlement programs morphed into redistribution programs.. taking from the working class, & distributing to the takers, with plenty of corruption, fraud, & mismanagment built in.

This primarily concerns social security & medicare, since they are allegedly self funded. But with the astronomical growth of disability & medicaid, the programs are over stressed. They are no longer financially solvent. They are going bankrupt. To fix them, the amount that people pay in would need to be raised above what most people would find acceptable. Politicians do not want to raise taxes on people, but still want to promise the free stuff. They won't address the corruption & fraud, nor adjust the payout, so now we are in the current dilemma.

Those on disability have grown over 10 times over the last 10 yrs. Why? The workplace is no more dangerous. No, it has become the new welfare. A new market of lawyers who can get you on disability for a fee has arisen. People with a hangnail or hurt feelings apply for & get disability.

This illustrates why govt is not good at anything where money management is required. They only waste the taxpayers money, & let con men & fraudsters run rampant in the system.

What are the solutions? Here are a few options.

1. Let it ride. Let entitlements run rampant, throw more money at them, & let them bankrupt & collapse the system. Some who advocate the Cloward–Piven strategy actually support this option.

2. Audit it & tighten up the qualifications. Raise the age for retirement & medicare, & reduce the payouts so the numbers work.

3. Scrap the system. Get the govt out of the insurance business. They are fond of mandating things to us, so they can mandate that we invest in ira's or some other retirement plan. It seems they are already mandating insurance, so that should render medicare & medicaid obsolete.

Even if obamacare is rescinded, i'm certain we could come up with a better managed system than anything the govt manages. They are a magnet for corruption, inefficiency, & fraud. Let the private sector supply these commodities. The govt can provide fair regulations & competition, but they should not be running things. Healthcare & old age security are not divine rights in the constitution. They are market driven commodities.. things you can buy at your discretion. When you give away free stuff.. food, housing, or other commodities, there will always be people lined up to take it. It is not the function of govt to provide a life for everyone. If they secure our freedoms it is enough. We can build our own lives.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." ~Sir Alexander Fraser Tyler


"No country can sustain in idleness more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive." ~Abraham Lincoln

American Exceptionalism?

The only thing exceptional about America for me is that i take exception that we are exceptional!  America is unique in history, to be sure, and the hodgepodge of characters & mifits that made up this nation are contrary to the more world wide vision of nobility & manifest destiny.  But exceptional?  That starts to sound like the divine right of kings.. attributing a unique blessing from Deity on our leaders, just because they are so special.

America is more like the Rodney Dangerfield of nations.. we never get respect.  In past centuries, & even now we are considered more of a mutt of nations.. a mongrel society with no real heritage or roots.  The european elite were glad for us to take their tired, their poor, their huddled masses.. they could then become a more pure vision of their culture, unfettered by the pesky malcontents & dregs of society.  Hitler despised the US for our lack of racial & cultural purity, as did the Japanese.  They did not think a nation like that could do battle with their superior warriors.  Most Europeans & middle easterners also view us as impure mongrels.. nothing exceptional about us at all.

Now in spite of all this disrespect, we have grown to become the most powerful nation in history, & unlike other superpowers, did not annihilate our enemies to prove our cultural superiority.  Perhaps that is one of the reasons for the continued disdain we get from many nations.  Annihilated enemies do not show disdain.

I see a progression of American culture.. an evolution of the american psyche & how we arrived at our unique views.

Early on with the pilgrams & other colonists, self sufficiency became the norm.  England did not protect & supply the early pioneers, nor did the Dutch or French.  After a few generations of this self sufficiency, with a dose of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, & other revolutionary views, the colonies started to feel they were not part of the old world.  Old England did not view us as equals, but distant suppliers of cheap goods & raw materials.  THEY were the exceptional ones.. the colonial nations with a divine destiny to rule (or at least manage) the world.

We had weird cults from all over europe coming here to practice their beliefs without persecution.  Many experiments in collectivism were tried, with little success.  But individuals working together had more success in building the new society.  Individual freedom & individual responsibility proved to be a powerful force in nation building.  The bizarre mix of people from many ethnic & ideological backgrounds was our heritage, rather than a noble purity of esteemed ancestry.  We had criminals, cult members, indentured servants, slaves, adventure seekers, & many other misfits & malcontents come to settle the new uncertain shores of america.

These people battled for their turf like any urban gang.  They made & broke treaties with the natives, & could be as treacherous as any european.  They were pawns in the European struggles for world dominance.. Spain, France, England, and even Germany saw us as bit players in their European stage.. pawns to be manipulated for political purposes.  By and large, we were naive & unsophisticated in world politics.. we were trying to grow the nation & provide freedom for our people.  And more kept coming.. immigrants from europe, mostly, coming for a new life of freedom & opportunity.

What made the American culture different was self sufficiency.  The govt was not powerful & totalitarian, like those in Europe.  It did not dictate to the people a lot of rules of behavior or religious beliefs.  They could not tax us oppressively, & engage in a lot of wars, because they didn't have much money or power, & the people were too spread out & lived mostly on subsistence farms.  The people had little to do with govt, & took care of themselves.  In contrast, the Kings of Europe ruled their people with divine right.  They drafted their young men into the army & made regular, imperial war on other nations to expand their turf & power.  They levied heavy taxes to pay for their excesses & wars.  The common people did not live under a free, self sufficient system, but at the pleasure of the monarchy.  Every right or privelege was granted by the King.  Your very life was at his discretion.  Common Europeans lived under this system until the last century.  But even now, most European nations do not have a personal responsibility, individual liberty culture.  They still look to the 'king' or the state to manage a lot of their lives.  They expect the govt to tell them what to do in most aspects of their lives.

Russia went from the Czars to Lenin without any real change for the common people.. they were still enslaved & oppressed by a monolithic central power.  Germany went from Kings to Kaisers to Furhers with little difficulty.. it was just different faces & different agendas.. but the totalitarian, statist govt was familiar & comfortable for the people.  France went from Kings to revolutionaries to dictators in the same way.  China, too, went from emperor to Mao.  Most of the world does not have the history or culture of individual freedom like those in america.  Free speech & press are fairly recent in Europe, and not really there in some places.  No citizens of other nations are trusted by their govts to be armed.  In America we think free speech, press, arms, etc, are normal human rights.  We have had them for so long we take them for granted.

But i see this as more of a psychological difference.. a matter of upbringing & the evolution of culture.. it is nothing inherent in americans, and certainly not exceptional.  Many generations of breathing the air of freedom have given us this attitude, & we tend to assume that individual freedom is a human norm.  But of course, it is not, & freedoms can disappear & be just a footnote in history, if we let statism & totalitarianism continue unchecked in it's constant lust for power.

American freedom is exceptional.  But that is not the people.. that is the concept.. the idea of America.  There is nothing exeptional about being born here, or coming here to start a new life.  But continuing to breathe the air of freedom requires exceptional committment.  Freedom is not free, & we must defend it & treasure it as our most precious possession.  In the history of the world, the freedom of America is very unusual & quite exceptional.  But we are not born with it.. we must take it as our own.. embrace it as our personal heritage & individual identity.  That individual freedom is the idea of America.  You don't have to live here to have it, nor does living here mean you automatically understand it.  To fully 'get' America, you have to see the idea.  For us to survive as a nation, we have to keep the dream alive.  America must live as a concept, not merely a collection of misfits & mongrels.  America as an idea is exceptional.


I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.  ~Thomas Jefferson


"Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience." ~John Locke


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..  ~American Declaration of Independence

Obama: The Great Divider

Politicians always tend to promote their own ideals & try to diminish the opposition. But i don't remember a president being as divisive to the country as Obama has been. In just the last few months, he's promoted:

1. War on women. He takes a public debate about publicly funded contraception, & uses it to divide us. He distorts the opposition's views, to try to frighten people to vote for him.

2. Immigration. Instead of looking for a bipartisan way to solve the problems, he politicizes it, just to appeal to hispanic voters, who he thinks will vote as a bloc for him if he makes a good show. Of course, he tramples on the constitution in the process, taking an action even he admitted was illegal for him to do. But solving the problem & working for solutions do not seem to be his priority, only dividing to try & win an election. His job is to enforce the law, not rule by edict for political posturing.

3. Gay marriage. His ideas 'evolved' in this, which is fine. But to condemn others with an alternate view seems a bit hypocritical. If he was a uniter, he would help 'evolve' their views as well, or work on a solution agreeable to all parties. Again, it seems like it was 'gay week' for him & this was just a political pandering ploy.

4. The evil rich. He knows that even if we took all the income from the 1%, it would not make a dent in the budget or the deficit. But this does not stop him from fanning the flames of economic division.. or class warfare. He has been harping on this the most.. trying to appeal to the ows crowd & to breed a sense of victimhood.. we are being oppressed by rich people. Again, no attempt at fixing loopholes in the tax code, which his team created for many of his contributors, but demonizing for political purposes. His political cronies want the current tax code with all the loopholes that favor them. He can make a show of righteous indignation, without actually doing anything to fix things. It's just a slick politician pandering for votes.

When Obama ran in '08, he claimed he would reach accross the aisle, promote healing & work in a bipartisan fashion. But he has been the most partisan president i can remember. He divides urban & rural americans with his 'cling to guns & god' comments. He panders to whatever group he speaks with, trying to make them think he's on their side.. he called for the hispanics to 'attack their enemies', & 'if they bring a knife, we'll bring a gun'.

There are always ideological differences, but we work together & try to arrive at a consensus.. a compromise that all can live with, even if no one 'wins'. But Obama only wants to win. He does not compromise. He had the house & senate for the first 2 yrs of his rule, & got his stimulus & healthcare jammed through, even though no one got to read it, & it was not opened up to public debate. Why did he not work on the dream act then? Why no gay marriage provision when he had the votes?

This culture of division has been building for many years. People look for inflammatory things in the news to promote that division. Someone a few months back posted a bogus restaurant check where some banker allegedly stiffed a waitress & posted an insulting comment. It was fabricated, but was all over the net, attempting to divide the wealthy from the oppressed proletariat. The martin/zimmerman tragedy is another.. many people were intent on politicizing it & distorted the facts early on to promote racial dissension. The Giffords assassination attempt is another.. taking a tragic event & distorting the facts to promote a political agenda & smear opponents. There are constant reminders of ideological division in social media, the news, & comedians. Our society is becoming more & more polarized.. instead of looking for the best solutions for any problem that arises, the source of the solution is considered first. If someone on one side suggests something, the other will immediately dismiss it as 'partisan'.

I don't see Obama as the cause of all this, but he is a symptom. He has certainly not tried to heal or unite, but divide & conquer even more. We do not need 4 more years of this kind of division & partisan gamesmanship.  We need real solutions, not politicians campaigning for office.

Class warfare

I think the class warfare ruse is that.. a ruse. It has no basis in fact. The poor do not pay any fed. income taxes, & get back more than they had withheld, in most cases. I heard a dem politician ranting about some company in wisconsin that he alleged paid no taxes. But when looked into, the company paid over $1m in taxes in WI, & millions more in other states, plus federal taxes. We have a high corporate tax.. some think it causes companies to leave the country.  But politicians like to lie & distort things to get themselves elected.

50% of americans pay no federal income tax. they either have a zero balance, or get money back in credits. That leaves the taxable middle class & the rich who pay ALL the federal taxes. Is this fair? The 'rich don't pay their fair share' is a bogus claim to incite class warfare & is done for political purposes.. to get people to fear the evil rich & vote democratic. But it is not based on truth or any reality, just fear mongering.

The whole rich vs poor tax debate is a political ruse to excite voters & rile up the base. It is a distortion & a deception of people for political purposes.

Now, if we're debating why GE got some juicy tax breaks, & just happened to be a big contributor to obama, then you're talking about tax reform & closing loopholes.. and maybe some corruption. Or if you want to mention GM & their big tax subsidy so the unions could get their money, i will agree about the injustices in the tax codes toward corporations like this.

I'd probably agree with the injustice of the special treatment for BofA, chase, wells fargo, etc.. why should they get cheap loans from the taxpayers to buy up their competition during a financial bubble?

Or if you want to talk about the corruption in govt where grants are given to shady companies & lose billions of taxpayer dollars to cronies & major contributors of the winners of big elections, i'd be for that, too.

But the lame, general accusation that 'the rich aren't paying their fare share!' is bogus. It's a leftist bumper sticker slogan, or a sign for the occupy wall street protesters.

Our real problem is corruption in govt, & corrupt politicians. They are bankrupting the nation, wasting our tax dollars, & ruining the currency. They should be the target of our wrath, not some vague 'evil corporations'. Those are merely distractions from the real issues.