37th birthday

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. It was a quiet day around here. We did a little sledding after some fresh snowfall. The boys and I played on the frozen ditch up the road.

After a week of warm weather that melted all of the snow in the valley, it snowed 4 inches today. It has been a heavy snowfall year in the bitterroot, but not too bad. 10 inches so far this winter.

Winter has Arrived in Montana

Boy, it went from beautiful to freezing cold in a week. We had some negative temperatures last week and about 6 inches of snow. We are burning through wood like there is no tomorrow. We'll probably run out this winter. So I guess I'll have to get twice as much next year.

We are hang drying our clothes now instead of using the dryer. I want to see how much less our electric bill is without using the dryer for a month. Our washing machine broke down a couple of days ago. So we washed 3 loads of clothes in the bathtub with the whole family. It was good family bonding. I may just leave the washer broken.

Jak is turning 3 tomorrow. And he still is in diapers. He does not like to use the toilet. He is still not talking a whole lot either. We probably need to read with him more.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for some instant hand sanitizer, check out foodservicefiresale.com. They have the best pricing on bulk cases. Purell sanitizes your hands and does not dry them out.

Winter is Coming

We are finally using the wood burning stove. This thing cranks!!! It heats the whole house. Much cheaper to heat with wood than gas. We got a few more loads of wood to make sure we have enough for winter. It is hard to tell because it goes fast. Anyway, the kids are doing good in school and I am positioning all the sites to really take off in January. I think we are going to create another instawares but better.

Our baby horses are doing good. Pepper healed up from her epic first day here and they are super friendly. We found a nice piece of property but the cash flow isn't there, so maybe next year.

Man, I am probably not the only one to notice, but food prices are going up. My pistachios are 20$ per bag now. Used to be 8. We have cut down on our food costs since we don't eat out any more. That's a good thing.

1 Month in Montana

Montana is definitely one of the best states in the country. Beautiful, rugged and the people here are super friendly. There is plenty to hunt, plenty of water, and plenty of rock. The kids seem to like it out here. Mom and dad have been visiting for a couple of weeks so we have been eating good. Dad cranks up the grill everyday. Found out yesterday Abbey needs to get her eyes checked. Sounds like glasses are in her future.

Anyway, we got another load of wood Sunday, which should be enough for winter now. Just have to split it.

Summer 2010

Wow, what a crazy summer. 3 of the kids went to camp for 5 weeks and Jak stayed with us at Drew and Mels. As the kids finished up camp, we packed up everything to head back to WI for the family reunion and to get our truck and trailer. The family reunion was a blast and we met a lot of new relatives. Oh, and the brats were the bomb.

So the craziest part of the summer was that my biggest client was stealing a lot of money from our joint venture. Apparently him making 500,000 per year was not enough for him so he decided to skim an extra 150,000 per year. It is amazing what greed does to people. I come in and create a site generating tons of profit and this coward decides to screw me over. LOL. Anyway, what goes around comes around. He'll get his payback for being a crooked weasel. No different than the weasel at instawares or sweet paper, I seem to be drawn to crooked, unethical weasels. But at least I can look in the mirror every morning knowing that I earn my money honestly and ethically.
Lying crooks like Brick and Bill have to look themselves in the mirror everyday knowing that they are lying cowards that can not stand on their own 2 feet and support their wives and children. They have to lie and steal and cheat to make it in life.

Anyway, I am ramping up my other 4 clients and launching 2 new sites next week. I'll hunker down for a year and get everything back on track and eat their lunch. Just a shame people can't be happy with what they have. Some people don't know how good they have it till it's gone.

So we just got out to Montana to start our new life here. We are renting a place in Stevensville for a year to see how we like it. It looks beautiful and there is so much to do, I don't know where to start. I am going to cut some firewood tomorrow up in the wilderness. We need plenty of wood for winter. :)

Overwhelming the System

Barack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.
Barack Obama is my college classmate (Columbia University, class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."
-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America. But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America. The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.

Seattle May 2010

We have been at Paul and Erins for a week in Woodinville, WA. We have checked out some beautiful property on the olympic peninsula. Just have to make a decision. Skokomish farms was beautiful, but a little pricey. Paul and I climbed in Vantage 1 day on basalt which was cool, steep climbing.

Oh, and did I mention, Seattle has some of the best Thai food in the country. Monica and the kids are heading back to atlanta to get ready for camp. I am driving to wisconsin to visit Aunt Dorothy.

Yosemite May 2010

We spent the last couple of weeks climbing in Yosemite Valley. David Young came up from LA to climb. We knocked out some easy classic routes including Central Pillar of Frenzy, East Buttress of Middle Cathedral, Northeast Buttress of Upper Cathedral, Upper Cathedral Spire, 4 pitches of the Salathe, and more. It is a beautiful place, but crowded. The waterfalls here are unbelievable.

Cool places to stay there are at the BUG, which has a cool, cheap spa and hot tub. Also, camping down in Briceburg along the river is nice. Inside the park is a zoo and the campsites are packed together for the sheople.

We are now headed up the coast hopefully.

The 7 Deadly Ingredients for The Coming U.S. Hyperinflation

Imagine that you’re walking home on a chilly, overcast night…

A man comes up behind you. Sticks something in your back. And with a deep growl, he promises to hurt you if you don’t immediately take him to the ATM machine and hand over your cash.

Of course, you abide – with nervous hands you type in your PIN number… withdrawing your limit for the day.

Half your wealth is instantly gone. But at least you’re safe… for now.

The next night you take a different route home. Yet despite your route change, it happens AGAIN. You’re held up and robbed of your money. And AGAIN the night after that… destroying your savings account, your safety and your lifestyle. Now you feel that there’s no safe place.

That’s exactly what hyperinflation is like. It not only destroys the wealth you’ve amassed, but robs you of any sense of security and order. It takes you for all you’ve got.

Take Zimbabwe for example – where in 2008, inflation rates hit 231,000,000%.

“It is quite interesting to see people going in banks with bags and sometimes even suitcases,” says the businessman. “You know that there are large amounts of money in there – which unfortunately are not going to buy much.”

But businessmen aren’t the only victims of hyperinflation…

The mother of two, cries, “The things that we buy – the groceries at home, the things we get for our two children – we have to buy immediately, as soon as we get the money.”

Why?

She followed up with, “We know that if we wait a bit, the prices are going to go up again. If we wait another week, we will not be able to afford anything. People are taking the money out in suitcases or carrier bags.”

Think this type of inflation couldn’t happen in the U.S? Think again.

In this report I’ll detail the 7 deadly ingredients for the coming U.S. hyperinflation. I’ll show you why, any day now, the final ingredient is due to kick in – sending pricing skyrocketing. Rendering the money in your bank account worthless. And destroying your lifestyle as you know it.

Take the simple steps I outline at the end of this letter and you’ll have a way to protect yourself from the coming hurt.

But first, what exactly is hyperinflation? And what are the ingredients that will produce this coming disaster?

What Exactly Is Hyperinflation?

Hyperinflation isn’t just an increase in the money supply; after all the central bank increases the money supply all the time, a phenomenon we know as simple inflation and which we come to expect as a constant. Hyperinflation, however, happens when uncertainty in the future worth of the currency causes people to start trading it for things of actual utility and more reliable stores of value as soon as they can. The velocity of paper money through the system increases as people seek to get rid of it.

So hyperinflation isn’t just the expansion of the monetary base, though the expansion is at the root. The expansion is fuel, but the conflagration doesn’t start till the herd panics. Hyperinflation is also a relatively new player on the world stage and has only ever occurred in the 20th Century, most notably during Germany’s Weimar Republic in the early twenties and most recently in the Zimbabwe. A lifetime of saving is wiped out overnight. The lives of millions are upended and destroyed.

Before the early 20th Century, simple inflation had plagued civilization repeatedly. Governments figured out a long time ago how to steal wealth from their productive citizens without the danger of tax revolts. But not until the modern era of purely fiat currencies, central banks and industrialized economies has inflation been able to mutate into the modern disaster known as hyperinflation. And the pieces have been falling into place for the U.S. to experience it firsthand.


Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #1:
The Creation of Fiat Money

Before paper money, rulers would just debase the coins—that is remove the quantity of precious metals in each and increase the number in circulation. Each coin had less gold or silver in it, though the rulers who issued the currency would insist—on pain of death—that everyone pretends that the coins were worth just as much. This sort thing led to Sir Thomas Gresham’s pithy maxim: “bad money drives good money out of circulation.” That is to say that people generally aren’t fooled by a debased currency and will hold on to the unadulterated forms of money while they use the debased stuff for their transactions. They use the debased stuff for day-to-day transactions, but put the good stuff under their mattresses.

Citizens generally know that the paper currencies they are forced by law to use aren’t quite as good as gold. There is an oily, slippery quality to the paper. It’s been that way since the very first paper currency was used in China during the Song Dynasty, but at least then there was metal backing the paper. In the following Yuan Dynasty the government forced citizens to turn in their gold and silver and use the world’s first fiat currency: the Chao. The same thing would happen again in the U.S. under FDR some six centuries later.

That unbacked paper money’s value will go down gradually over time is a given, but most folks delude themselves into believing it’s for the best and that the government has it all in hand. They come to expect this gradual inflation of the money supply and decline of their currency’s purchasing power. But eventually a nation has to face the inevitable outcome of government trying to manage an economy and print wealth into existence; centralized planning leads to misinvestments on a colossal—even global—scale, and this sort of planning can only be sustained by a fiat currency since the unfettered market would never allow for it. Eventually the whole thing collapses.

You see, when money supply is fairly fixed, it ties government’s hands. When you want a strictly limited constitutional government, that’s a good thing. Of course, if you want centralized planning, market interventions and wars, gold standards are horribly restricting. That’s why governments get rid of them as quickly as they can. Then there is absolutely no need to be fiscally responsible. Then governments can use all the usual means to grow in scope and reach: the wars, welfare the market intervention previously mentioned…

And the creation of credit.

Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #2:
The Easy Availability of Credit

Credit distorts prices. It’s how the banks—under direction from the central bank—get the disaster rolling. Fractional reserve lending laws allow banks to make loans far beyond what they actually have on reserve (a fraction of those reserves, hence the name). Assets get bid up with credit and bad business ideas get funded. People get all sorts of false signals because of the availability of credit and bad decisions get made. Debts grow on all sorts of unproductive purchases and ventures. The Fed is ultimately responsible for inflating explosively unstable financial bubbles.



The message from the gov’t was clear: “C’mon in and get all the money you want! It’s easy. It’s cheap. And we’ll hand it out to anyone!”

The artificially low rates — set by a board of Fed governors, not the free market – allowed people borrowed beyond their means. To the average American, it all seemed to make sense. All their assets were going up – stocks, real estate, overall net worth.

But what goes up must always come down.

Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #3:
Bursting of the Credit Bubble

This can’t go on forever—borrowing on reserves that aren’t really there. When it stops working, those debts have to be worked out somehow. This “somehow” manifests itself as losses and write-downs. Borrowers can only service these debts for so long when the debt-fueled activities and questionable investments inevitably fail to produce enough income and returns to pay the debt and interest. When the debts can no longer be serviced, then violent reallocations occur. Businesses, livelihoods and homes are lost.

The ultimate effect is that incomes decrease, sometimes drastically, sometimes to absolutely nothing. Loans stop performing. In the latest bust, a lot of the shaky loans were securitized, sliced and diced, given good ratings by (formerly) reputable ratings agencies and then sold as investments. These securitized debts would prove to be tiny bombs that would pulverize investment portfolios globally. The debt was counted on as actual income-generating savings by large institutions—banks, pension funds, local governments, investment companies, etc—and individual investors alike, who all would come quickly to find that their investments were not worth nearly what they thought they were.

Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #4:
Sharp Contraction of Available Credit

Seeing billions disappear from your balance sheet is a hard pill to swallow. And when the banks were forced to wash it down, an funny thing happened: they stopped lending.

They stopped lending to each other. They stopped lending to consumers. And they stopped lending to businesses.

Suddenly, the small business that produces vinyl signs down the street from you gets a call from their creditor. “Excuse me, sir” the bank rep. says. “We’re not going to be able to extend you that credit line you needed to buy your next round of supplies.” Those jumbo home loans — handed out like candy years before — are now made in micro amounts. That new SUV that your niece wanted to buy? Forget it. Even with good credit, they’re not lending to her now.

For good reason, too. After the credit bubble burst, the banks finally became deathly afraid that the people they’re lending to won’t and can’t pay them back.

Poof. Gone are the days of easy credit.

In a world of sound money and no central bank to inflate the money supply and no fractional reserve lending laws to allow rampant credit growth, this shouldn’t have been a problem. People wouldn’t have “needed” the credit. But fiat money and artificially easy credit are like booze and dope; they create crippling addiction in the form of an unsustainable consumer economy. Take the debt drug away of the world’s largest credit addicts and… well, things can get ugly..

The entire system goes into shock. As mentioned above, credit becomes scarce as banks worry about every getting their money back. Without credit, both prices and economic activity start to decline.

Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #5:
The Deflation of Asset Prices

Strictly speaking, deflation is a contraction in the money supply. Of course “money” can different meanings and include different measures. If available credit is counted, then deflation does indeed take place when that credit ceases to be available. And credit ceases to be available after it has been made too cheap and plentiful by banks. Fractional reserve lending laws exist to make credit plentiful and the central bank exists to make credit cheap at their whim.

Don’t count on deflation in any real sense. Under a fiat currency, deflation can only ever be a short-term phenomena, and it generally only occurs when available credit contracts. Also keep in mind that credit is something that banks can over-issue far above actual reserves thanks to those pernicious fractional reserve lending laws.

Credit is like an appendix to the actual supply of paper dollars and tallies in account balances. Credit can and does deflate and the effect on the economy is indeed very deflationary as prices bid up by credit collapse (housing is a very obvious example, but luxury items and even needed commodities are affected by availability of credit) and activity dependent on credit ceases, and the jobs attached to those activities disappear.

Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #6:
The Rapid Printing of Money Out of Thin Air

Asset values and economic activity have to fall to painfully low levels in order for all the excesses of easy credit to be cleared away. After a while a sound economy can then be rebuilt on the basis of honest money and market-determined interest rates. But that’s not the sort of thing governments subscribe to in the Keynesian era. Governments and the rabble who elect them, believe that it’s possible to get something for nothing and that it’s possible to print wealth into existence. The average person really believes that all the government has to do is print money and take over production in order to keep the party going.

An easy way to devalue the debts is to make them easier to pay. A little inflationary easing thus seems like a really good idea. That’s how governments make inflation palatable to their subjects. It makes the weight of bad financial decisions easier to bear.

The government borrows money into existence (from the central bank) and then spends it into the economy. Governments and central banks technically are separate entities, but they collude with each other like this all the time. When citizens and foreigners won’t lend (buy bonds) and raising taxes isn’t enough, the central bank is always there willing to play ball.

The central bank can increase the monetary base as much as it wants…because it’s the entity that issues the currency. It then uses that currency to buy bonds from the government, which is just a convoluted way of saying it loans this money to the government so that the government can continue to spend money. Of course if anyone else tries this sort of legerdemain, it would be called counterfeiting. When the government and central bank does it, it’s considered economic stimulus. Then the government can spend this new money into the economy by its usual favorite venues: wars, welfare and—in times when stimulus is called for—an alphabet soup of make-work programs.

The government labels this sort of thing as “economic stimulus” or “quantitative easing”, though a more honest description would be “defrauding the minority of savers” and “prolonging the inevitable painful outcome of propping up misinvestments.”

The new administration has decided to “monetize the debt.” They are going to create new money in order to bail out various banks and businesses and even mortgage debtors. But again, governments may be able to create money, but they cannot create wealth or purchasing power; they can only steal it outright with taxes or subtly with monetary inflation. It’s a swindle. The money they create dilutes the value of that already in existence. It is a way to siphon purchasing power from those trusting souls who have saved in the currency. It’s an indirect and subtle tax. This is wrong in principle and disastrous in practice.

Hyperinflation’s Deadly Ingredient #7:
The Acceleration of Money Into the Market

If you’re keeping track at home, you probably recognize that we’re right here. We’ve seen the first six ingredients… and now all we need is the 7th and final ingredient added.

It may not come tomorrow. Or the day after. But be sure that our current monetary trajectory puts us on pace for the acceleration of money into the market.

And that’s when things get really scary.

Hyperinflation takes off when the entire population gets wise.

The money supply might have been growing in fits and spurts for decades, but the hyperinflationary storm happens when that money really starts to move around as people try to get rid of it. The prices of useful goods get bid up to embarrassing levels. The process accelerates when governments try to stabilize markets…often by adding more paper…because honestly, what else can a government do? Mismanagement and fraud are the only things governments really get right consistently. So for the government a problem that’s caused by the theft of inflation can only be solved by…more mismanagement and fraud. The entire process is self-reinforcing and results in the hyperinflationary death spiral to which all currency is heir.

The effect is that savings in the currency rapidly lose value. In an effort to sustain pretend wealth, the government wipes out real wealth. The only way to avoid this destruction is not to put one’s trust in the paper the government and the central bank issue. At some point in the future literally everyone everywhere will be rushing to exchange paper for things of real value. The trick to survival is to start before they do.

Here’s how to do it.

How To Protect Your Money

If you’re thinking that this whole fiat currency deal and the hyperinflationary death or money is an abomination, you’re right. If you’re thinking that there’s something you can do to prevent it, then you’re absolutely wrong.

This sort of thing just keeps happening over and over. Human beings seem to love making themselves slaves to the state and believing in the false promises of that false god. The rulers want more power and the ruled want something for nothing. Fiat currency has proven the most efficient way for advanced civilizations to ruin themselves. Fiat seems like instant wealth, but it’s just sure death.

Like anything else, liberty and the sound money upon which it is built, seem destined to atrophy and die. All the individual can do is be aware of the lessons of history and to take the appropriate steps to protect themselves.

You obviously need to deal in currency on a day-to-day basis, but a portion of the your savings should be in things of lasting value.

U.S. Hyperinflation Hedge #1:
Long Precious Metals / Short the Dollar

Gold and productive farmland have been much more reliable stores of wealth than paper for several thousand years. Gold is just a bit easier to hide, however, should the need arise. And right now it’s the better buy.

When speaking of the collapse of a currency, people often trot out the adage “you can’t eat gold.” By this they mean that in a true currency crisis and attendant collapse, only fuel and food and the arms to protect them will have any value. Gold, despite being branded a barbarous relic by Keynes, is actually a symbol of civilization and trade. Therefore it won’t perform its monetary function when civilization and trade break down.

In a true collapse, there may be no trade at all or what little trade there is could be limited to barter. As long as there is any exchange being done, people will find something to use as money; the guy with the cows that produce the milk you want is not always going to want the furs you have to trade. If trade goes on at all, even if barter is a large part of it, precious metals will have a place. They’ve been used as money for thousands of years because they perform the function of money so well.

On the other hand, a common assumption is that gold is absolutely the best thing to hold during hyperinflation. Not necessarily true. It will do a lot better than the failing currency…but a hyperinflationary scenario means that just about everything is doing better than the failing currency…the currency is the one thing that no one wants to hold. Depending on where things are at the start, however, it may not do the best. Right now, real estate is still in the process of falling from a extremely high levels fueled by the credit that is still vanishing. The simplest way to diversify out of the dollar is to trade it for precious metals which have proven to be a much more enduring form of savings, especially in times of crisis.

The first step you should take is to trade some of the fiat currency in your possession for something of lasting value. Buy some gold. Non-perishable food items are also a good idea, but gold (and silver) do much better as money.

U.S. Hyperinflation Hedge #2:
Begin Converting Your Savings to Something Outside the Dollar

Entire nations—particularly those who have been enabling the U.S. by buying up its dollars and lending it money—are starting to question the long-term viability of the dollar. China is getting nervous…

Personally, I think physical precious metals are the way to go.

But if owning and storing precious metals isn’t for you, there are other ways for you to protect yourself from the ravages of hyperinflation.

Here’s to protecting your wealth,


Gary Gibson
Managing Editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder

Utah 2010

Sporty and I climbed out at Red Rocks with the kids. Monica was back in Atlanta. Red rocks is nice, we'll have to go back and climb some big walls. The kids and I then headed to St George,Utah. What a beautiful place. Snow Canyon is beautiful and has some nice climbing.

From there we headed to Zion NP which has some of the biggest walls in the US for climbing. Unfortunately I had no climbing partner. Kids and I hiked around. We headed down into Utah to Kanab. Easily the most friendly town in America. Everyone there is so friendly. From there we headed down into the desert to camp out and hiked out to see the WAVE. One of the most awesome rock formations anywhere. We also toured Antelope Canyon in Page AZ. Very cool slot canyon.

We rented a boat out on Lake Powell, which has to be one of the coolest lakes in the world. Rock walls coming straight out of the lake for miles. The Glen Canyon Dam basically flooded all kinds of slot canyons. Awesome.

We are now headed to Indian Creek to climb with David and Ben. Then sporty and I are headed to Arches to climb and then to Zion to tackle some big walls. I can't wait.
Oh, and along the way, we are going to check out Goblin Valley.

Collapse of America

JOE LEGAL vs. JOSE ILLEGAL

You have two families: "Joe Legal" and "Jose Illegal".
Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California .

Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes
$25.00 per hour before taxes are deducted.

Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number,
and gets paid $15.00 cash "under the table".

Ready? Now pay attention...

Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00
per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Joe Legal now has
$31,231.00..

Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or
$31,200.00 per year. Jose Illegal pays no taxes. Jose Illegal now has
$31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for
his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Joe Legal now
has $24,031..00.

Jose Illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the state and
local clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has
$31,200.00.

Joe Legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or
welfare.. Joe Legal pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per
year. Joe Legal now has $18,031.00.

Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps
and welfare. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Joe
Legal now has $9,631.00.

Jose Illegal receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Jose
Illegal pays out that $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year. Jose
Illegal still has $ 31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for insurance. Joe Legal
now has $7,231.00.

Jose Illegal says, "We don't need no stinkin' insurance!" and still has
$31,200.00.

Joe Legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline,
etc.

Jose Illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities,
gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month.

Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after
work.

Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.

Joe Legal's and Jose Illegal's children both attend the same school. Joe
Legal pays for his children's lunches while Jose Illegal's children get
a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal's children have an after
school ESL program. Joe Legal's children go home.

Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same police and fire services,
but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.

Do you get it, now?

Vegas 2010

So we left colorado last month and headed down through arizona. We camped at Show Low, AZ and at the petrified forest in arizona. That was pretty cool. We then headed down to Tucson AZ to see Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob. They are both doing fine. We visited Tombstone AZ to see the old mining town which at one point was the biggest city between St Louis and San Francisco. Hard to believe. A 24x7 mining town. We also went up Mount Lemmon to see the big sagura cacti. Way cool.

From there, we headed up to Phoenix for a couple of days. We mostly just settled into a hotel and I got caught up on some work. Once the rain passed, we headed out to Joshua Tree, CA and camped there for 3 days. Beautiful park with tons of boulders, joshua trees, cacti, and ocitillo trees. The kids had fun playing in the boulders.

Turtle and the kids all got a stomach bug over the next 4 days so we headed into palm springs to get a hotel. It turns out I was the only one not to get sick. Even my friend Paul Callo who flew down to climb with me got sick. Go figure.

After leaving palm springs, we camped out at Mojave National Preserve which was very cool as well. We camped at the base of the sand dunes in there which the kids loved. Mike, Wyatt and I climbed the highest Kelso Sand Dune. Next we visited the Hoover dam on the way into Las Vegas and we are currently camped out in Vegas at the Monte Carlo. Sporty should be heading up this weekend to climb if the rain holds out.

Volusion Down Again 2/22/2010

Nice to wake up and see all of my sites down with no message or status or anything. Every since volusion migrated away from rackspace to host things themselves, the uptime has been horrendous. When rackspace was hosting everything,they never went down. What a mistake to get away from rackspace. Some knucklehead over there wanted to save a few bucks at the expense of their clients. They obviously don't have the in house expertise to host themselves. I also have sites that are SUPPOSED to be on different servers, yet they are all down.

Arizona 2010

Well, it looks like we are finally leaving colorado after 3 months. Next stop, Tombstone, Az. Home of the legendary Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. Then the Grand Canyon and Petrified forest. Should be fun.

I think we are all getting cabin fever in CO. Too cold and too much snow. Kids are learning a lot and I am working a lot and we are having fun digging tunnels in the snow and 4 wheeling in the snow.

Got a speeding ticket last week from a CO state trooper. What a goofball this guy was. The little piss ant communist harrassed us and fined us 250$. Well, dumbass, you cost your state about 3000$ in revenue from us boycotting the rest of our 2 weeks there. No more skiing at wolf creek run. No more eating out. No more shopping. Until we get out of your state. Way to go Nazi police force of CO. I am sure the local people and businesses are happy you are running off visitors who wanted to spend money in your town and state.

Vote with your dollar.

We also climbed to the top of the great sand dunes of CO. Awesome.