I see where Indiana’s Governor just signed a law to take another layer of healthcare away from those who cannot afford to pay on their own.  He is de-funding Planned Parenthood because up to 3% of what they do is abortions. The other 97% are for completely other things. This brings up the title for this post.  It seems the Republicans insist on yielding a merciless meat cleaver where a compassionate scalpel would have done the job.  I know Republicans are seen to be against abortion (I have doubts about their real sincerity on that topic) but to take away all the services of that agency is merciless … Continue reading Merciless Meat Cleaver vs. Compassionate Scalpel..

Here is a pretty good place to eat that is just down the road from the USS Wisconsin in the previous post. It is pretty much “old school” but well maintained and seemed to have a pretty good following for at least the Sunday we were there. Continue reading Freemason Abby @ Norfolk VA – April 2011

This looked like a working farm but I couldn’t figure out the white fence. Continue reading Northern Wisconsin – October 2010

I’m going to do a restaurant review here. No I am not Tony Bourdain but then again I didn’t need any reservations to get in.  The restaurant is called Salsa in  down town Asheville North Carolina. We ate there during our recent trip through West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee. I know this is NC and not on the list. We didn’t actually know we were going to go there. It just kind of happened. Salsa is not just Mexican but instead a combination of Mexican/Caribbean.  The food was excellent; I had a Cuban dish but can’t remember the exact name now. It was … Continue reading Salsas….

OK, here is another shot at trying to decide what we in the U.S. are true experts about and therefore export more of than any other country. I don’t claim to be a sage about this sort of thing but I think I am on to something with this one. Is there a commodity that the U.S. exports much more of than any other country? Could our number one export be our Consumerism? Maybe its our Marketing? Maybe it is both: Consumerism/Marketing. This it kind of like the chicken/egg type thing. I don’t know which spurred the other but the result is the … Continue reading America's Number One Export? – Part 3

This is a continuation of the search for the U.S. number one export. Is there a commodity that the U.S. exports much more of than any other country? Could our number one export be Bravado (some call it Machismo)? We certainly like to strut around and show the world how “manly” we are. I wished it didn’t but this even seems to apply to some who used to be referred to as the “fairer sex”. Here are some examples: Take a look at all the celebrations around the death of Bin Laden. We can’t seem to get enough of the … Continue reading America's Number One Export? – Part 2

Here is one from North Carolina. We only skirted the State so it is the only barn we saw there. Continue reading North Carolina – April 2011

This post will start a series on the search for the U.S. Number one export. It is widely known that the U.S. has a mammoth trade deficit. We import much more than we export. I can’t understand why this isn’t considered a factor in our current government deficit talks. Sending all those $billions to foreign makers seems just as, or maybe more detrimental, than the government borrowing money much of it from themselves via the S.S. trust fund and other somewhat devious, or at least contrived, methods. Is there a commodity that the U.S. exports much more of than any other country? Could our number … Continue reading America's Number One Export?

The picture above is of the Battleship Wisconsin. Running around on the decks gave me an eerie feeling remembering all the massive shells fired from those huge guns. There was much collateral damage in those days. Continue reading Norfolk VA – April 2011

When I was in the corporate world I flew to different parts of the country and Mexico on at least a monthly basis. When I started flying business more than forty years ago it was a somewhat luxurious thing. Often I would get a pretty good meal returning home from business trips. And when we happened to end a meeting a couple of hours early we could always get an earlier flight home. But that all ended in the 1980s when Reagan deregulated the airlines. After that flying became a burden to be suffered not enjoyed. I ended my corporate career dreading … Continue reading I Don't Fly Anymore….

Am I the only one who is annoyed by those guys that have commercials on TV about helping you get out of your tax troubles? They sit there so stern-faced and say if you owe thousands of dollars in back taxes come see us and we will help you only pay pennies on the dollar. They seem to assume that they are somehow contributing to the public good by providing this service. In reality they are probably taking a pretty good percentage of the money legally owed in taxes. All of us have a duty to pay our fair share … Continue reading About These Professional Tax Dodgers….

Since I put the traditional pictures of Monticello on my InTheSlowLane blog I decided to use one from the kitchen area in the basement at the back of the house for this posting. Since all the cooking was done by Jefferson’s slaves it was not a fancy place like the rest of the house but it was very utilitarian. This was the third time I have been to Monticello. Of course, it hasn’t changed much since the first time I was there in 1965. One thing that has changed is they now put more emphasis on the slaves and their lives … Continue reading Monticello VA – April 2011