September 14th Al Gore, my Favorite Whore

Posted on August 9, 2011 by George B.

Read below before you watch Al’s most recent Advertisement 🙂

AS I write, Al Gore is organizing our children for demonstrations on Sept 14th. He’s selling this as a last-ditch effort to save the planet, and the only adults he can find to attend are those who are invested in AGW.

In reality, those who have been following Climate Science closely know that Professor Murry Salby and others have recently completed a study of our best record of climate data, (NASA’s) and it disproves past AGW theory!, and why Al’s massive investments in carbon trading and more should NOT be supported. Professor Salby’s work is based on Scientific discovery and hard data, but you should not expect Al Gore or those who are counting on the billions of dollars (we don’t have) to support the empires they wish to build and master.

I keep reflecting on what a high school student told me recently, “wow! it’s hard to believe the government is in on this hoax.”  I guess it takes a little more maturity and life experience to take the next step in critical thinking, and ask.. “what are we calling Government?” In the case of the United States, Government is a group of people who are willing to promise the impossible to a group of voters who are ignorant enough demand it.

Useful Ignorance might be a more appropriate term than the term used in the past ‘useful idiots’.

Of course, once you find yourself in power by promising the impossible, you find yourself trying to deliver it, and it must be a frightening position to be in. You print money that becomes more worthless everyday, you support anything that comes along that will transfer more authority to you in order to keep the charade going. We all know, that nothing man has ever conceived would transfer more authority from the people to Government than Cap and trade.  Some see the Clean Air Act as nothing but good, but it is a step towards canceling State’s rights all together, and works to erode the foundation which our nation was built on. Of course that is no worry for a progressive, as they think we can make it up as we go along….”it all so simple really”, and that’s how they see things no matter how complex they are.

The majority of Al Gore Followers have several things in common. The  key word here is(majority).  Remember, there is another group of supporters, and they will either gain financially, or they will be granted near unlimited power through the passing of Cap and Trade.

  • They are young.
  • They believe we are on the verge of developing free energy.
  • They believe the Government is the source of all money, many believe that printing money is the same as making it.
  • They believe that a Government job is exactly the same as a job in private enterprise.
  • They have never seen hard times, and they believe they are entitled to the living standard they have had in the past.

It will be interesting to watch Al Gore’s last ditch effort… those who are fully invested in Carbon Trading and the children they’ve rounded up in an attempt to save their massive fortunes. Unless they can convince you to transfer your vote to them; their massive fortunes will turn to dust. Imagine poor Al Gore having to fly first class commercial versus burn a few tons of fuel in his private jet to attend a round up of his child supporters.

Here’s some things I suggest you do.

Ask why Al Gore, Michael Mann, and others don’t seem to have any interest in discussing the most recent, relevent, and more complete studies of climate data?

If you are interested in critical thinking and the reality it produces, you will add a permanent book mark to Jo Nova’s website. Do scroll down and look for the article on Professor Salby’s work, I think the link is in red. This is a profoundly relevent study, and most timely. Listen to the audio of his lecture.

Next, note how Jo’s critical thinking skills are put to work to demonstrate just how corrupt the people are who stay in power by promising the impossible! Look what they are doing to your savings.

Jo Nova, We love you…

http://joannenova.com.au/

Ok, you’ve waited long enough, he’s weird Al’s newest AD.. what a piece of work this man is… I can’t imagine living around him.. I guess Tipper came to that conclusion as well..

http://climaterealityproject.org/#step-1

At no time in history have we had the ability to receive information about every storm, flood, mudslide on the planet. Never before have we had a media that is hell-bent to sensationalize every scrap of weather information, and at the same time ignore even greater events in our past. When has there NOT been mudslides, floods, forrest fires?

We have Big Coal, Big Oil, and Big Al. Big Al will be remembered for having played on our fears

Cause and Effect are things often overlooked… even by so-called smart people. The effect of eliminating sources of energy we need to maintain our economy WILL kill millions of people in the third world, and there are people who tell me that is part of the larger plan. In their minds, these people contribute nothing to the modern world except the spread of disease and poverty.  Modern farming methods are responsible for feeding the world, without energy, these people will die by the millions, and so will our economy.

Remember the recent words of Tim Gitner… “WE will NOT lose our AAA rating, no way”… It’s not that we have fools at the top, it is that we have those who have promised the impossible and people who are still ignorant enough to demand it.

God save us from Al Gore, and the useful idiots who follow him…

G

 

Posted in Announcements, Buyer Beware, Things I Hate!, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , | 5 Comments

My email to the US Mint.

Posted on August 5, 2011 by George B.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I figured someone likely monitors the email address suggestions@usmint.gov, so I thought I’d send you this idea.

I went to Home Depot today and took this picture with my cell phone, this is likely the cheapest of the steel flat washers, and note the price of 12 US Cents each!

Flat-Washer

Flat-Washer

We both understand our US currency is becoming near worthless, and we all know that the good people who work at the US Mint had no part in devaluing our currency to the point of making fools out of the people stupid enough to have saved it.

I’d like to be constructive from this point forward and offer a suggestion that would add a lot of value to our US Currency and greatly lower the cost of making it.

All you need do (to start) is quit making the US penny and instead use the very inexpensive to make steel quarter-inch flat washer. There’s no need to make it fancy, no need to give it that fake copper color of the new Penny.

Imagine.. a cheaper to make coin that has about 12 times the value of the US One Cent Coin! I hope you give my idea serious consideration, our currency is an embarrassment, a lot of people won’t even stoop over to pick up a penny, but a Steel flat washer.. well, that’s becoming down right expensive to buy with US currency.  Once you get the penny replaced, there’s plenty of room to replace the 5 Cent Coin with another Flat Washer, maybe you can use the three eights, or even the five sixteenths flat washer?

Thanks for Listening…….

Sincerely,

George B.

Posted in Things I Hate!, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , | 4 Comments

August Update on Chevy Volt, Here's your chance to learn beyond your years.

Posted on August 3, 2011 by George B.

Here’s your chance to learn a lot about the Car Business and life in general. will you pay attention?

First.. just a little background… let me set the stage for this blistering article I’ll share.

Designing any new car is a huge undertaking, and we older people have seen it done wrong a number of times.. really wrong..

Before the Engineers and Designers get too far down the road in a new concept, it’s critical that you get marketing involved to assure there is a market for the product you want to build. When I was in my early forties, I still hated marketing, I saw them as a group that spoiled a lot of projects, forced engineers to cut corners and build products that were far less than they could have been. Now that I am older, I understand more about their role, and why you can’t allow engineers to build the toys they want and expect a company to survive.

If you had money to research what people wanted in a new car, you’d likely get the same data that marketing has been hashing over for the last 75 years. Here’s some things people ask for:

I want a car that is:

  • Reliable.
  • Sexy.
  • Good fuel economy.
  • Room enough for the whole family including the dog.
  • Fast
  • One that handles like a slot car.
  • One I can buy for a payment I can afford.
  • Dark green in color.

But when it comes to a new concept car, Marketing  does far more than go to a shopping mall and ask people what they want to buy. They are focused on the most important question of all, and here’s where you’ll see fire and ice meet!

A note for the Engineering mind, you know of the superior efficiency of the compression ignition engine, and maybe you wondered why Toyota overlooked this and why they didn’t offer this superior engine in the Prius? WHY???   Fact is… Toyota studied this intensely, and learned that this power plant would place the car outside the price range of the group of people who were interested in buying the car.  Marketing knows that only a portion of those who say they would buy a Prius will, they’re job is to identify exactly who the real buyers are, and how much they can actually afford to spend. Marketing understands from years of experience that many of the people who show interest in the product will never buy the car.

Car Salesmen will tell you of all the men who came down to the Dealer’s show room  to check out the new Corvette and left driving a far more practical four-door sedan. Reality kicks in, there’s a lot of factors to consider, payments, flexibility, Insurance, proven design, resale, and far more. One large chunk of reality is there’s often two people involved in the selection of a new car and flexibility and cost often become major factors.

But you say.. where does the fire and ice meet? Is that when husband and wife battle over what car they’ll own?

No… The fire and Ice meet EVERY TIME the Government gets involved in dictating what consumer products will be, and here you’ll see the reason…..

Companies survive through profit, if they are not profitable, they are normally carved up and purchased by companies who have made better assessments in what people want and what they will pay for.

Government on the other hand has a history of ignoring profitability, and they see their Empire as a cost-plus-operation. They also understand that idiots cast votes, and far less thinking goes into casting that vote than goes into signing a five-year contract to buy a car.

When Government dictates a car to build, they are focused on what’s popular with their supporters… and the votes the effort will get their party.  They have no understanding of the car business, they often have no clue how private enterprise works.

Now for the GEMS.. Just take some time to read the comments under this article.. one I really enjoyed was the guy who says that big screen TVs were once $6500.00, now they’re cheap.. Fact is.. marketing proved there were buyers at the $6500 price! Some believe this will happen with the Chevy Volt, expensive today, but cheap tomorrow..  I believe the opposite might happen, as these materials go up in demand, so might the price.  Rare Earth has already gone up seven times in a six month period! lithium, and more might go up as well. There’s little chance a car with a very complex power train will ever be inexpensive.

But.. the Chevy Volt has nothing to do with reality, and I’d bet money that a proper marketing study (one done by Toyota for instance) would prove out that the vast majority of the people who say they are interested in purchasing this car couldn’t afford to buy the optional charger that is required to charge the car in a far more reasonable period of time.

Government is not focused on profit, and when they enter the marketplace and stay, the best move you can make is to sell their currency and invest elsewhere.. History is full of examples of what happens next.

Here’s the link.. if you think the Author is liable.. you might consider helping to fund a law suit.. make sure you click on the link in this article to see the full story.

Think about it, why is it that Chevy can’t even find a hand full of people to buy these cars even when tax payers are forced to pick up $7500.00 of the cost? Remember that friend  of yours that praised this effort? Is there one in his driveway now? Why not help him take delivery? You might even offer him a ride to the Chevy Dealer..

GB.

more musings..

One last thought for the Engineer. What are the losses between the charging source and the rear wheels? Who will pay to upgrade the utility if there’s a volt in every garage? How will we make this electrical energy with no dams, no nukes, no coal, and now we hear Obama’s supporters hate evil natural gas too 🙂

when you see the Huffington Post rebuttal, please send me the link, and do keep asking the Chevy Volt fans you know if they’ve ordered one yet?

 

Posted in The New Green Movement, Vehicle Design, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Important Perspective

Posted on July 23, 2011 by George B.

Balance the debt on the backs of Billionaires?

Here’s some  perspective..IF the US Government confiscated every dime Warren Buffet has, we could use his tremendous wealth to cover what we ADD to the National debt each day for less than 10 days!

Added comment: 7/23/ 0924 hrs

What we all need realize is the public education system of the United States has failed us all. The people we send to Washington don’t seem to understand the most  basic principles of running a business or a government.. “having a budget”.

Washington DC >will< spend any amount of money you send them, double their income and it will all be spent.

American taxpayers are either too inept or too lazy to comment on the reality that Washingot DC manages our money in exactly the same way Lindsay Lohan manages hers.

 

Posted in Things I Hate!, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged | 27 Comments

Inventions, A self contained study in what an invention is not.

Posted on July 18, 2011 by George B.

Perhaps you’ve looked into Patent law to some degree, and maybe you thought you had a great idea and even thought about getting a patent?

At the root of patent law is the basic premise that this indeed was your idea.  One of the things we see over and over is examples of people who work VERY hard at deceiving themselves.

The definition of a patent is interesting as well, basically it’s an agreement to share your idea in exchange for your right to make exclusive use of it for a certain period of time. The patent becomes public information, and anyone can look it up. Remember this when someone you know goes off on that tangent about the oil companies or big government buying up the rights to a secret patent to keep the common people from making use of a 300 MPG carburetor or similar nonsense.

In order to put the following WEBsite up, the owner must ignore 100 years of fire arms development. He must also ignore the legal definition of what a firearm is.

I can’t remember the first time I saw a primer powered rifle, but they’ve been around for a long time. If you look at a potato gun that makes use of hair spray and a flint igniter, it falls fully into the class of a firearm, and you could legally be charged with discharging a firearm within the city limits IF a police officer were inclined to charge you.

One of the things I find most interesting  about the following website is the plea for you to write your Senator and have them support his delusion that ‘his invention’ is not a firearm, and should be classified as an air rifle.

Note the discloseure of  ‘patent pending’ on his website.

As I close, I reflect on the times I’ve heard young people speak… “sure it’s true, I read it in the paper.”

with no further delays.. study this, it’s a doozie 🙂

PrimeGun.com

As we grow older we realize that half or more of what we read is Bull Shit.. but perhaps the larger sin is when we Bull Shit ourselves. Want another example of that? Thinking that an already bankrupt country can afford Obama Care. If you think this is all going to work out just fine, I hope you don’t get away with telling your kids and grandkids you were against it when they asked how they got such a raw deal.

GB

Posted in Things I Hate! | 3 Comments

The door to our future was left open today, I saw our future!

Posted on July 15, 2011 by George B.

A proper title… “Why you should invest in Solar?”

I encourage you to view President Obama’s News Conference July 15th 2011, and measure his words carefully.

Among the many statements he made today was an important key to understanding your future. But first, take a moment to recap the recent past and study just how inept your Government has been.

Yes, you watched with your own eyes as Democrats and Republicans alike stood around as  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac handed out Federal Reserve notes like it was monopoly money. You watched people who didn’t even have a job qualify to buy houses twice or three times as grand as your own. You asked yourself at the time, how will these people ever pay off these loans?

What you need remember is “this was no dream you had”.  There he was Barney Frank and many others, both Democrats and Republicans who told us home ownership is always good, and not to worry. We older people knew the truth, this had little to do with ownership, it was more ‘house lending’ as we knew these zero down short-term, zero interest loans would expire, what then?  We also knew how attractive it was for renters, a chance to live in a grand house for five years or more for less money than the apartment they were renting in some cases. They had no skin in the game, walking away would be easy, and some even knew it might take a year or more in order for the lender (you) to foreclose…. even if they didn’t pay a dime. You also noted how hard you worked to save for the down payment of your modest home, and the difficulty of making that more realistic interest payment every month.

Today President Obama made his usual speech that was littered with clues as to how the Markets really work, and right behind the lectern, was a door half-open, and our future in plain view.

The president commented on interest rates, and he said if we as a Nation didn’t raise the debt ceiling, interest rates would go up and this would be bad for all Americans.

You have the wisdom and experience to know how untrue this statement is, and you have a grand seat that will allow you to see our future as well.

First, we need understand what money MUST be in order for it to remain viable. Money must represent life’s energy, a days work, a years work, a life time of work. Through the ages people acquire some kind of wealth, and this is used to carry them through the years they are no longer fit to work. It pays property taxes on a modest home, buys food, and other essentials. Some people choose to join a co-op of sorts, their Unions form pension funds, Corporations form pension funds and of course many if not most invest in 401Ks and similar to fund those years when they know they will be less productive or even unfit for work.

For money to represent life’s energy it MUST be capable of drawing a realistic interest rate, and most would agree that realistic has a lot to do with supply and demand.  If interest rates are forced artificially low and held there, personal pension funds, union pension funds, corporate pension funds WILL eventually fail as there will be no ‘prudent’ investments that will allow them to make use of “life’s energy” (what money must represent to remain viable). When the FED sets artificially low interest rates, they effectively ‘steal’ your bonds and deny you a return on your investments, pension funds of all kinds are targeted.

America is presently borrowing at an insane rate, but perhaps the most damage is being  done by robbing anyone who has contributed to a pension fund, or anyone who has saved a single US Dollar or more by denying them to earn a fair interest rate.

At present, everyone in America sees the class warfare, it is being sold as the poor against millionaires, and Evil Corporations. If you study the mechanics, you’ll see it more clearly, the real damage is being done to those in the middle class  who have saved for a lifetime in order to be responsible Citizens, and this pain and suffering is coming from the Federal Reserve and Congress. It’s unfortunate that so many in the middle class don’t understand who is currently fleecing them.

Perhaps the very best path to recovery is a default on America’s debt, we essentially take the keys away from an inept and corrupt ruling glass who care about little more than their re-election. WE hear from the majority of women that  Michelle and Sara are stupid and totally unfit for leadership, but perhaps they are among the few who see the simple mechanics underlying a failed policy?

It’s time to turn some of those US Dollars into Garden Tools, Seed, and some canning jars. Haven’t these fools proven to you that the only road they’ll travel is the easy road? Haven’t we all learned that the easy road takes us straight to hell?

 

 

 

Posted in Fighting Propaganda, Survival Skills | Tagged | 5 Comments

Japan finds Rare Earth deposits. New jobs for out of work Oilmen?

Posted on July 4, 2011 by George B.

Hawaii, get ready for a few extra people hitting your ports for Rest and Relaxation. You’ve always been a great R&R port for our Service Men and Women operating in the Western Pacific, and now you may be entertaining mining crews.

If the following article is accurate, there is hope that this deposit could produce Rare Earth at less cost than the Chinese can make it!  And here’s some possibilities…

Obama dealt a serious blow to the oil people when he shut down the gulf to oil exploration and well drilling, some of these specialized ships might be available and easily converted for the express purpose of transporting this mud to a ship, sorting out the rare earth metals, and safely returning the mud to the sea floor via a down pipe and gravity.

Seems to me that out of work oil platform workers would make excellent candidates for mining these materials, as they would need far less training… the USA could have the equipment and crews ready to mine it soonest.

Considering the EPA’s rules, it’s possible that the California mine is already doomed to failure as far as profitability, I’d bet that’s exactly what the Chinese think.  As the article mentions, there’s lots of stuff to sort out, and for all we know there are tons of discharge that might have to be put in 55 gallon barrels and shipped to a hazzard site for all we know.  Mining Rare Earth from mud that contains far less toxic waste, and outside the reach of the EPA might make it wirthwhile.. working it wet may take care of most environmental concerns too..

So here’s the article.  Japan and the USA could be the perfect partners to make this happen.. or so I think. Let’s hope these materials can be processed in time to make a difference in the current market.  You folks down South who are still looking for an oil job… would you take a job out of a Hawaii port processing mud knowing your R&R port was this good?

GB

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110704/ts_nm/us_rareearth_japan

 

 

Posted in Announcements, PMG | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Who Killed the Electric Car? June 2011 Sales Figures may hold the answer.

Posted on June 30, 2011 by George B.

Who else is sitting on their hands waiting for the June sales figures for Chevy Volt, Leaf, and others you might find worthy of parking in your garage?

Do you know one of those people that bashes Big Oil and also paid to see “who killed the Electric Car” Movie? Are there really 20,000 people in California waiting to order an EV? That’s the story I get from Greenies I know. If this is really the case, shouldn’t we see these people reflected in orders for EVs?

I was in a group watching the sun set here this week, the weather was wonderful, and we were discussing all matters of things, Solar Power came up, then one person in the group mentioned they had taken an Alternative Energy Course at a local Community College. I mentioned that many of the people I’ve met who are pro AE people don’t know the difference between and IOU, and a BTU…. yes.. she did ask… “What is the difference?”

My conclusion is that there are intro classes for Alternative Energy that are little more than a hard sell for investments that rob the public treasury, and in some cases do little more than provide corporate welfare.  Seems there’s little if any discussion as to what these green energy sources contribute in relationship to the cost… who is paying the bills, and in whose purse does the money flow?  The Economics portion always seems to be missing in these Intro to AE courses.. I believe that’s intentional..

Is there anyone out there who thinks GM’s EV1 was a better and more efficient car than Government Motors is willing to produce now? If you believe that, perhaps you think Obama and his entire administration are being bribed by Big Oil as well?

EVs and advanced hybrids will not survive in the market if you don’t buy them.

Who really killed the Electric car? Lack of Buyers certainly will kill them. So let’s all look for the June orders/sales figures for Volt and Leaf, we should see 20,000 orders or more just for California right? Please consider posting same here under comments if you see the figures published.

GB

 

 

Posted in Fighting Propaganda, The New Green Movement, Vehicle Design, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Personal Import? Up to $2000 a year, It's now a simple process

Posted on June 28, 2011 by George B.

JB Shah, Lovson

If you’ve read the article on the utterpower CD about how slowspeed engines are made in India, JB Shah above was the man who made the viagra super active effort to give us a best look into how a Lister Type Engine was made thru the wonderful series of pictures and the historic account of engine building  in India. This is an example of JBs willingness to go far beyond taking an order and shoving it towards the next desk.  Lovson has a secret weapon.. people who know and understand the slow speed business and who know the  West, they have an excellent command of english, and speak the language far better than a few of my Scottish friends 🙂

Some 30 years ago, there were a number of Auto Manufacturers that were heavily into racing.  Some race engines arrived here from overseas complete minus piston rings. the race team engine builder put the engine on a work stand, pulled each piston and fit the engine with a set of previously fitted and gapped rings.

The Reason? The engine was brought in as parts, and at that time it was far more complicated and expensive to import a race engine due to the tariffs, red tape, and more that existed at the time.

In our low speed engine hobby, the weight of cast iron complicates shipping, We are forced to pay a lot extra in fuel surcharges, and it seems that our government is currently doing all they can to help drive up fuel costs long term. I received an email from a reader that was interested in buying a low speed generator set in Washington State and shipping it back East. He claimed the shipping bid he received was $1500.00!  Most of use would have expected $600 or less, as we know a lot of trucks are loaded with fluff, and shippers like to to bid on dense loads.

The high cost of Interstate shipping makes it reasonable to consider importing on your own… especially if you live a reasonable distance from a port, or if you get a bid from a local shipper to pick up your freight and haul it to your door and know the charges beforehand.  A pickup or small trailer works great, and you quickly learn you can move the world on a pipe roller.

Here’s the key article to understanding personal import. Last import I did, the fee was $125 just to fill out a form to meet the requirement of notifying the port that my stuff was scheduled to ship! Notice these requirements and expenses are not part of personal import requirements.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/215

Of course you’ll need a contact: joanna@lovson.net gets you started.

http://www.slowspeedengine.com/

There’s a lot of people who want engines or parts still, but importing a complete engine is illegal. Importing an Air compressor is OK, and converting an Indian Air compressor back into an engine is a 45 minute job for a DIYer. Since India has a LONG history of using engine parts for air compressors, it’s a natural thing.

With this said, you can visit Slowspeedengine.com and look around, you’ll note there’s an air compressor on these pages, it’s based on the LG engine series, and there are other engines that could be delivered as air compressors I’m sure.

Assure that the air compressor is ordered, and the ‘selected parts kit’ which has everything you need including a DVD showing how to put the parts on the Air compressor to turn it back into an engine. Of course you know your finished work must meet current emissions!

Recently, I have noticed that shipping prices have gone quite high for interstate here in the USA, this might allow you to order directly from India using the personal import method and lower your overall cost of parts or air compressor!

Joanna, Lovson
Joanna, Lovson

JB Shah and Joanna at Lovson form a team that gets things done!  They understand the Business of export. And have communication skills that rival other organizations I have worked with. I’ve found that good communication is key.

In closing, there are a lot of us that feel more comfortable with parts on hand, We may never put all the parts together, but we see them as an appreciating  commodity that will only gain value when a government is hell-bent to keep spending which WILL drive the value of >our< dollar further down the toilet. Know the rules and follow them, I’m not advocating you break the law, if you build, verify your emissions and meet the EPA’s regulations.

All the best,

George B.

Posted in Slow Speed Engines | 34 Comments

Chris Grieve, King County Council’s Poster Boy?

Posted on June 23, 2011 by George B.

What makes the world turn? Maybe it’s better to ask what makes your guts turn?

Seattle makes the national news.. again… I’ve even had some personal emails from folks back East laughing.. laughing at who you say??  Washington State King County Council Members:

Larry Phillips
Joe McDermott
Bob Ferguson
Julia Patterson
Larry Gossett

The Story follows, but I think there’s another story surrounding Chris Grieve himself. read on..

The Snoqualmie River can be an unruly neighbor. But for a month or two, when it’s needed the most, it calms down so much that parts of it become an oasis.

“It’s like our town swimming hole,” says Piper Muoio, 47, who lives in the Wood River subdivision in North Bend.

On hot August days, it’s not unusual to find 50 people cooling in the water on a beach area near her home, Muoio says.

“People come down to dip their feet, swim or swing out on a rope into the water,” she says. “I like to float on an air mattress. You can go and just sit in the middle of the river. The water’s barely moving there.”

Except now, due to the wisdom of the Metropolitan King County Council, all of them — the foot-dippers, the swimmers, the rope-swingers, the floaters, the in-the-middle-sitters — must, by law, wear life jackets.

It’s an $86 fine if you don’t. That now applies to all boaters on all the major King County rivers, including inner tubers and Muoio on her air mattress. But more strangely, it’s also the law for anyone, no matter how old, who swims or wades more than five feet from shore (except adult fishermen, who got exempted.)

“How did wading get wrapped in there?” Muoio wondered.

Seriously, Metropolitan King County Council? If I’m out on a hike and I want to wade around in a river to cool off, I better have packed a life vest?

Now it’s true these rivers can be like crazed beasts in the spring and early summer. That’s when the white water rafters love them most. But right now I probably wouldn’t try to swim in one even wearing a life jacket.

But in August or September, the trickiest thing about floating some of these rivers is that you run aground so often.

In North Bend, the middle fork of the Snoqualmie quiets so much in very late summer that parts of it can be easily walked across, Muoio says.

“I don’t think anyone would object much if they required life jackets for boating,” she said. “But I can’t imagine we’re all going to be wearing them during our summer swims.”

Is swimming with a life jacket even fun? Sorry, that question is obviously out of bounds.

Currently the law is only that vests are required for kids under age 12 who are in boats less than 19 feet long. Some states do mandate life jackets for adult boaters in dangerous waters, such as Class III rapids or above.

But it’s apparently a new one in this state to make life vests mandatory for adult swimmers. The part about waders is even more off the charts.

The well-meaning idea is that there’s huge snow melt this year, so the rivers are expected to be full and dangerous for longer.

“I personally feel that it is insane for anyone to be on moving water in Washington without a life vest,” said James Grieve, of Northwest Fly Fishing Adventures, writing in support of the new law.

OK, but again — even if we’re wading? That’s kind of like making air bags mandatory for pedestrians.

I guess laws like this are, in the end, not that big of a deal. Last I checked, the King County Sheriffs Office was so understaffed they were saying they can’t respond to every burglary. It would be curious if they suddenly find the manpower to crack down on inner tubers.

So really it’s just a public-service message. Wear your life vest, eat your broccoli, etc.

Why I am irked by it anyway? Something about being treated like a child.

Said a county health officer, when the life-vest law was introduced: “The best drowning prevention on rivers is to stay out.”

Can’t argue with that. The best dying prevention would be to never leave your home at all. Only hitch is that at some point there’s no life left in the living.

Danny Westneat’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.

source= http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2015388225_danny22.html

 

Back to http://www.northwestflyfishingadventures.com/ and Chris Grieve. Notice the picture on his home page, he’s standing in the middle of moving water with no life vest on, I sure hope he’ll pull that picture and get the blaze orange vest on and set a good example for the rest of us.

One thing I’ve noticed about Sportsmen, they normally encourage personal responsibility, and all the ones I have any respect for understand that additional laws can very easily interfere with another person’s freedom and pursuit, furthermore they generally have the wisdom to understand that there are many people who believe you have no business hunting or fishing!  I’m sure there’s countless vegeterians in Seattle that think catch and release is stupid too.. you’re in the river, hooking fish and sometimes injuring them for what? Just to let them go? How insane they’ll say.. No doubt they could use Chris for the Poster Boy a second time…. a Dumb Ass in the River bothering the fish! There should be a law against it they’ll say.

But there’s more… Washington State Law makes it a ‘Cake Walk’ for an attorney to seek damages from a Government Entity and to be awarded them. The first person who gets his life vest hung up on a log, branch or other impediment in a King County River is going to create a gold mine for some attorney.  Of course it won’t be the Dumb Asses on the King County Council that will pay the awards.. it will be the Citizens of King County, and the Jury is asked to decide if the County is 5% or more responsible for the death or injury. Five percent! What Jury wouldn’t find that?

As I close, I think of all the fun I had as a kid, diving from 20 or 30 feet into a big deep hole in the Green River.. It sure would be fun to force the council members to make that dive with a big ole orange life vest on.

I wonder if James realizes how many people would approve of banning his sport? We can learn quite a bit from the sentiments of comments on this article, and here’s one Grieve should think about.

Seattle Majority might conclude: “If we ban this activity all together, no one will lose their life doing it.”  Fifteen to Zero!

 

GB

Posted in Strange Stuff, Things I Hate!, Your Wasted Tax Dollars | Tagged , , | 7 Comments