Ed,
Thank you for saving my day. I have not logged onto the forum in quite some time, and I was about to jump out the basement window.

All,

After reading through this long post, I have come to only one conclusion,
I am going to go the beach, and then kill myself.

One last thought,

When I woke up this morning, I counted my fingers 10! My arms 2! My legs 2! Toes 10! I could see, I could breathe, my wife and my friends are here.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

Chuck,

You are absolutely correct. The start of the end was when they stopped teaching civics in school. Kids (and a lot of adults )today have such a misunderstanding of how government is supposed to work that it is unbelievable. A couple of years ago my oldest son who was 11 at the time was given a pop quiz with a list of names. The object was to see how many of the students could correctly identify the pres. vice pres. our senators and local rep. and the supreme court justices. My son got 100% and was the only one who got over 50%. His teacher was amazed. I guess he has been listening to my conversations with wifey and in-laws. I was (almost as) equally amazed at how few kids in the class even knew the presidents name. When I was in 5th grade we learned about all our civil servants and wrote letters to them. By high school however (late seventies) I was told I did not have to take History because we were all going to be blown up in a nuclear war so live for today. A lot of the teachers of today are my age so I guess my school was not the only one teaching that nonsense.

I am teaching my kids that they must not surrender the WE THE PEOPLE part of our government. Funny thing is that I am considered a radical by most of my relatives and in-laws. How far we have slipped as a nation. There is such a disconnect from our government that I really think that if you were to go out onto the street and asked people if we are in charge of the government or if the government is in charge of us most people would respond with the later. Never mind that not only are we in charge of the government we ARE the government.

The time is ripe for a third political party. For it to be successful though it will have to stand for individual resposibilty, social justice, a ranking of rights of individual, community, state and then federal (you know how it used to be.) and personal responsibility to do what is right for the people of the country and then the world. Problem with that is there are precious people who could pull that all together and get people to follow them.

Didn't know you had basements out there on the islands. Better not jump out of one though you might get in trouble for traumetizing an earthworm.

The last house I owned, I installed solar hot water. Might do it again if I can scrounge up the money.

Solar generated electricity, only if I use it all. Selling it back to the power company is a farce. Last time I checked all you got was the fuel surcharge back. As the rates are readjusted, that drops back to 0 every now and then. (I wonder how that law came to be.)

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Another engraver & I went to the NY giftware show today. We did not come up with 1 new product. We spoke to 3 suppliers that are used heavily by engravers. They have all dropped products that we who sell a lot of giftware use. They all gave the same reason. The off shore factories have always had large minimum orders but they were able to handle the large minimums because they knew they would sell, albeit, a little slower. Our suppliers business has dropped off to the point that they can not afford to tie up cash for that long of a period. They all felt show attendance for the first 2 weekend days was down about 20%. Neither Cross nor Colibri were exhibiting.

Did anyone attend the Vegas gift show this weekend?

We left shaking our heads and we will now brainstorm to find new product.

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Before a third party can be successful it has to have the financial backing of large political action groups. I don't believe it could compete otherwise. We would then be back to where we are now. Pretty sad isn't it!

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey,
The system I was referring to, is connected through the electric meter and when the power generated by the solar array is greater than what you are taking from the city grid, the meter actually turns backwards, thereby crediting your account with the electric company. Unless your utility has restrictions on the type of system you can put in place it should make sense.

That is too bad, and yet another example of how overly bureaucartic our country has become and it futher exemplifies how selfish special interests are...... sigh......

Move to hawaii....we can open a shop...and put solar on it.

Chuck,
Harv would do it in a heartbeat. I aon the other hand get very cranky anytime the temp outside gets over 72. I have been pushing for Alaska for years. He wants your neck of the woods.

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Now we need to get some of this forum into Congress and some idiots out of there.

Gonna have to start with the head idiot....oooppsss, sorry, he is on a 5 week vacation!

Doug

Ah, I knew there was a reason why I still liked you. (devil) 

Dave