Alas, Colorado

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

When I was eight years old, my life-plan was to grow up, live in Denver and be a writer.  Somewhere along the way between that age and fourteen, marriage to a man named Dan Holtz became part of the plan.  Okay, so I got a letter wrong, and one superfluous.  Also, he was supposed to be a redhead and an astronaut.  (Sigh.  Reality just fails to conform.)

How much of my current life was influenced by that?  Well… living near Denver to an extent.  (Marrying Dan had nothing to do with my deciding he was the one for me despite his name.)  I say to an extent, because of course first I had to live in the States.

Not only didn’t my 8 year old self know nothing about immigration laws, she had no clue where Denver was located or what precisely it was.  (I’m convinced in retrospect that I had it confused with Dover, since for the longest time I thought it was in England and near the sea.)  And by the time I’d acquired that knowledge – somewhere between fourteen and fifteen – I also had an idea of what moving between countries would do.  I mean, I was aware of the price to pay.

No, I never felt like I fit in in Portugal.  There are reasons for this.  My friend Kate found a website that charted nations according to characteristics.  Portugal is apparently very consensus oriented.  I’m an Odd.  Consensus gives me hives.  There are other characteristics.  They call this the national software.  It don’t sit well with my hardware.  We’ll put it that way.

However, Portugal is where my family lives and has lived for generations.  I like the land, I like the climate, I like being near the sea – and the price I paid to escape the wrong software — was to give all that up, to give up my parents – when you move across the ocean even if I could go back every year, it’s like dying a little.  I’m giving up the years I’d have with my parents and trading them for a week a year ON THE GOOD SIDE.  (More like a week every three or four years) for the rest of their lives.  More, when I got married I also gave up my (paternal) grandmother.  And all my cousins.

Everytime I go back, I’m reminded of the price I paid.  The land, as such, is largely gone.  It’s impossible to feel much attachment to the village when I can no longer find my way around it.  However, as I get older, I see my extended family get together, supporting each other.  If I were to lose Dan – G-d forbid – after the kids move out I’d be very alone.  This is impossible in Portugal, where the family go out of their way to drag the widowed and the sick out to parties and excursions. And it’s not charity.  They’re really wanted, because they’re part of the whole.

It was the price and I paid it.  I paid it because I wanted my children to grow up here, not there.  Over all I think I was right.

However, for those who think I aimed to live in Denver – I didn’t.  First I came to the states.  Then we found ourselves in a mighty tight space, in South Carolina, and Dan said “there’s nothing in this area, where do you want me to look for a job?”  I said “Denver.”

We ended up about 100 miles away.  That’s fine.  However, from the moment we drove into the state, I knew it was home.

This sort of bridges the gap between the political and the weird.  Was I meant to be here?  Who knows.  But I made “here” mine.

It was also – Colorado Springs in fact – the center of a Libertarian project to “get as many of us to move in as possible” and “take over.”  It worked for about five years and then…

So, now to everyone who keeps sending me notes asking me what I intend to do about the Colorado legislature and its laws to ensure we never get to have a say in governing again.

I’m not stupid.  I see the Detroit writing on the wall.  I’d feel the same way if this were the Republicans ensuring we never had a say in government again.  Whenever you get single party rule, you get corruption and decay.

So, am I going to move?

Where?

Sure some places are now becoming less crazy – TN, maybe portions of Ohio – but Colorado was going that way when we moved here, and look at us twenty years later.

Twenty years from now I’ll be seventy and it will be too late to fight the encroachment wherever I am.  And besides, I think the sh*t hits the fan well before then.  We are running out of our grandkids’ money (and perhaps ensuring most of us never HAVE grandchildren.)

Barring us having to move because there’s no money or jobs, we stay here.

Now, I’m not saying that won’t affect our plans.  We always wanted to live in Denver, but this might not be possible, if the area is going to Detroitize (totally a word.)  Heck, where we are is not nearly as safe as we used to be.

So we’ll cast about perhaps for a more defensible place, balancing this with the need to have access to hospitals which yeah, we’ll need as we age.

But other than that…

When I was eight, I was going to live in Denver and be a writer.  I’ve almost made it, and I’m not in the mood to let the larcenous and petty Colorado legislature dislodge me.  It’s impossible for them to believe same day registration and voting by mail makes elections more secure.  Unless of course they mean it makes their positions more secure.

But I refuse to go running from my chosen home just because they’re playing games with bureaucracy.  If we keep just moving on and leaving the places they take over, they learn nothing but that they can take over.  I’d say moving on was a good strategy if we had other worlds to colonize.  We don’t.

I mean to prove to them that what they captured is a booby prize.  What makes this country is not government.  What makes this country are the people who create and work and raise their kids.  Colorado still has plenty of those.

I plan to be prosperous without them, avoid their schemes as much as possible while staying on the side of the law, and oppose them and ridicule them every chance I get.

The Colorado legislature shall learn: Molon Labe.  Also mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.

349 thoughts on “Alas, Colorado”

  1. > I had it confused with Dover, since for the longest time I thought it was in England and near the sea.

    LOL!

    Well, I feel less bad for thinking that Austria had kangaroos now. ;-)

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    1. Dang, from what I can see, they don’t even have any at the Vienna Zoo.

      There’s a bit of snark ruined.

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    2. Dover? In our family that is in Delaware. It has one of the two finest forensic labs in the country.

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  2. Hmmm; I’m going to suggest you move anyway, and come to defensible Chattanooga – not only is it the site of your “home Con”, but it’s very close to several major population centers (Atlanta, Nashville, Huntsville, Knoxville), and has the Acropolis! Oh, one other thing: Gigabit Internet access through our local utility.

    Come to the South Side – we have cookies y’all :)

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    1. If we have to move, that’s where we’d like to go. We’d at least at some point like to have a pied a terre there. Okay, mostly for the acropolis, but the rest of ya’ll are good too. ;)
      The problem is fleas. I know this sounds insane, but it made my life in the South HIDEOUS. Even before we had cats, summer was terrible. All I need is one flea bite and by virtue of allergy it spreads into this open sore a palm wide that will NOT heal got months. You see where that’s a problem?
      I have to balance that against the dryer hair up here which might or might not be giving me breathing problems. It’s debatable because in Columbia, SC I had to use an inhaler, it was so bad.
      That said, if we have to move (for job/money reasons) Chattanooga is at the top of our list.

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      1. Keep Texas in mind as well. Yes, it gets hot, and yes, we have bugs. BUt my wife – born in Northern California and raised in Western Washington – has come to love the area we live in (the Hill Country NW of San Antonio). She says this is where she wants to be.

        And even with liberals infecting the state, it’s still pretty rational. And if Texas did secede, we’d have a far greater chance of making it than any other state in the Union.

        Besides, being a Texan isn’t just a matter of geography; it’s a frame of mind as well.

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        1. Totally agree with you. Dallas isn’t bad either. We drive to the Hill Country for vacations.

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  3. I have to balance that against the dryer hair up here which might or might not be giving me breathing problems.

    Maybe you need a better conditioner?
    (runs and hides)

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      2. Ha! Something I can speak with authority about! I use Jason’s Biotin Shampoo and Conditioner in the Summer. (it’s too heavy for winter here in Indiana). It looks just like a regular shampoo & conditioner, but it is hypoallergenic (at least, neither me nor my husband react to it.) Some people think it smells– a little odd, but it’s not horrible. Kind of like mint/thyme and vanilla. The smell is not pervasive or very strong. Most things that claim not to have perfumes actually have a tiny bit. YMMV. The Smooth Hair (with sea kelp) variety is even better (has almost no smell, but not as moisturizing) , and prevents frizzies pretty effectively. Both are much less fragrant than anything you’ll get from Burts Bees or other pretenders to Hypoallergenic fame. FYI: Jason has an umlaut over the “a” and “o”, *rolls eyes* and I’m too lazy to figure out how to insert such a thing with my browser. Also, these aren’t technically fragrance free, but somehow avoid the fragrances and additives I have problems with, which are legion.

        http://www.jason-personalcare.com/product/078522070054
        http://www.jason-personalcare.com/product/078522050056

        If you just need a better fragrance free conditioner, Jason’s is great, but is still not as moisturizing as I’d like. My old stuff was actually actively damaging my hair. (Now my hair stylist doesn’t hate me!)

        If even these are too much allergen potential (I have weeks like that on occasion– especially if I’ve been triggered by something else), search the internet for Tate Family All Purpose Moisturizer. Actually, don’t bother. I did it for you, because I need to get more anyway. Earthy crunchy grocery stores also might have this (like Whole Foods or a Compounding Pharmacy. The latter is where I used to buy mine when I did brick and mortar) Mix the stuff with your usual crappy Hypoallergenic conditioner.or even use it like a comb-in conditioner (while you are detangling your hair after washing it) and be amazed.

        They are also not HORRIBLY expensive. They are high-average, I guess you’d say. Most of the really good stuff, though can run $30 a bottle. This goes from $7-$10 @ in a store. You can probably do better on line.

        Tates works very well as a detangler all by itself, and is non-greasy. (gets rings off of fingers too– and even loosens rusted screws. I’m not kidding.) You can also use it in moisturizer, for your lips– it is very versatile. I especially like it for dealing with chapped face while sick. It does not sting on abraded skin– which is saying a lot.
        If you absolutely need some oil, you can also use plain, refined coconut oil. (if you have Middle eastern Groceries, that’s where it’s cheapest) You just use a tiny little bit (rub hands together then slick it on after you’ve brushed), and it makes all the difference. My ailment seems to abuse hair as a hobby.

        The Tate’s is so neutral that you’d have to be allergic to moisture in the air to have problems with it. It’s what they use on kids who live in bubbles, believe it or not. (Or so says a nurse friend of mine.)

        http://www.ourtatefamily.com/
        http://www.amazon.com/Tates-The-Natural-Miracle-Conditioner/dp/B00159Y23Q

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  4. Molon Labe. Yes– I wander the land–lost.
    I don’t have a home except with a person — the hubby. So I am willing to uproot and leave at almost any time. Although it is hard to believe it because I still have so many books and papers. ;-)
    Now the hubby hates to be uprooted. My biggest dream was to have an RV and go back and forth across the land. ;-)

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    1. When I spent the first 20 years in the navy, Charlotte had to follow me (and did through 14 moves.) Now she gets to pick the final location to grow old together. She wants some place with temperate climate and dry air, but we are not sure where that is. Colorado springs is a little high in elevation, when we drive through colorado (not often) she gets altitude headaches. I’m still looking for a suggestion.

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      1. The problem is temperate and dry air– I would suggest looking at Idaho or Utah. Southern Utah is more like Arizona is some ways– so if she doesn’t like heat than it won’t be a good place. Nevada is becoming californized in the south (Las Vegas). It is very temperate during the winter and very very hot in the summer. North Nevada is cold in the winter, high altitude, and hot in the summer. Plus Northern Nevada has a lot of wildfires every year. We lost 1.2 million acres one year–

        If you go to the coasts, it is wetter plus Oregon is going the way of Washington state– sadly. Wyoming is very cold in the winter–nice summers in some places. ;-) Dry and temperate are hard to go together imho. Dry means hot summers.

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        1. Thanks for the insights. Charlotte spent HS in Salt Lake City, and really likes Cedar Breaks as a choice..I had a work colleague who had a “Cabin” in St. George, and we haven’t discounted either of those spots.

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        2. Your best bet might be down in the Idaho/Wyoming/Utah corner. It will get hot in summer and cold in winter, but not too extreme (you obviously have to pick your places, since I just described an area the size of most states) and is probably as good as you are going to get for Dry and temperate. There is also a pretty good choice of altitudes, although a lot of the low elevations tend to get hot in the summer, and have a lack of trees, if trees are a criteria.

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      2. The Texas Panhandle might be close. Dry, four seasons, museums and cultural activities for those so inclined, a pretty active club and fraternal scene, altitudes varying from 3300′ to 5000′, four hours to OKC, four hours to Albuquerque and the mountains, six hours (including potty stops) to D/FW, and the cost of living is reasonable. If you have severe dust allergies, need a basement, or hate wide open spaces (some visitors get agoraphobia attacks), I don’t recommend it, though.

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        1. You forgot to mention the Cadillac henge outside of Amarillo (to the west), I have never seen anything like it before. ;-) I drove through the panhandle on the way to Albuquerque with The Daughter and wished we had more time to explore the area. You are so right about the open spaces, The Daughter nic-named it ‘miles and miles of miles and miles’.

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      3. You’re basically asking for a Mediterranean climate.

        Unfortunately your best climate is basically the east San Francisco Bay. How’s that for pain and insult.

        Western Nevada, just east of Tahoe might not be too bad, It’s IIRC 3-4000 feet. A little hot in the summer, but dry.

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        1. I made a post about shampoo. I thought I was replying to my own post… yet it attached it to yours instead. I think I did the right thing. Sorry!

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            1. I know. :) One of my very best friends is named Jennifer, and she is not normal by anybody’s definition. It is one of the main wonderful reasons why we get along so very well. :)

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              2. I was graced with Alice. It didn’t help. So I changed it to Sarah. The weyrd is still here. I’m going to pick out a really outre pen name for my romances. Burgundy or perhaps Imogene. Maybe it works by contraries.

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                    1. The one Esmeralda I knew growing up (and this of course colors one’s picture of the name) was the youngest of one of the poorest families in the village (her dad was alcoholic. Also mental, I think. If someone took off running after someone of his family with a knife in the middle of the night, it would be Esmeralda’s dad.) They lived in a half-ruined house and there was a quantity of children. I remember Esmeralda because her eyes WERE emerald (esmeralda is emerald in Portuguese.) They were also COMPLETELY sightless.

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                    2. Poor girl– we have a county in NV called Esmeralde and it is the poorest county in the State (most of it is taken over by the federal government), which kind of gives me pause.

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                    8. My step-mom’s name was Patience. It was a family name, I think back to when the family lived beyond the frontier in the Ohio valley. It is a hard name to carry as a kid, so of course there has been one in every generation because it is tradition.

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                    9. So — let’s see — Sophonisba Patience — ehmm — Potts.

                      Perfect penname. And unique, too, I dare say, even without the ehmm. 0:)

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                    11. Melibea.
                      Almathea.
                      Lignite
                      Svetlana
                      Of course I love Pilar and Rocio

                      Of course, Melibea sounds like toast.

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                3. Tee hee. There was a short time as a child that I wished I had been named Elizabeth. Then I learned to embrace the name I was given for all it was worth. ;-)

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      2. Really?!? But the sincerest form of flattery starts out “Pay to the order of____”

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    3. Yes. For years I dreamed of driving a loup around the southern part of the U.S. using I-40 and I-10, taking the time to side trip as I went. Then I realized that there are four highways that go (almost) from coast to coast in North America, not only is there I-10 and I-40, but also I-80/90 (They share a stretch passing below the Great Lakes.) and Canada 1. My dreams have now become more of a fantasy, but they cover more territory than ever.

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          1. I-20 starts in Florence, SC, near enough if I care to consider I-40, which ends at ends at Barstow, CA. The problem arises when, west of Pecos, TX, where I-20 meets with I-10 and comes to an end. ;-)

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      2. “driving a loup”

        Wouldn’t you need more than one? or are the wolves that big where you live? /ducking, running

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  5. To use a very trite expression: “I feel your pain”. My Mom has a small ranch in a little valley about 4 hours SW of Denver. I love it there and I go out every time I get the chance. It was going to be our summer home, as it was for my folks, with a winter home possibly in Texas (I don’t care that the GOP has taken over the NC legislature, I gotta get outta here!).

    But now, with the craziness in Denver (I refer to it as San Fran East. Or is that Boulder?) I don’t really know what to do. Sell the ranch after we worked so hard to get a Conservation Easement on the property so it can’t be developed? Ride it out and hope that the good people of the real Colorado send the rascals packing? And how much hope is there for that?

    Aaaarrrrrgggg!!!!

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          1. Somebody linked to an OP-ED from an Iowa (I think) newspaper over the weekend (and I can’t find the link now d*mn it!) in which the author said that the coming “civil war” would be longer and bloodier then the first and that the liberals should be careful what they wish for. I tend to think that he’s right…..but I hope he’s not.

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            1. Found it!
              http://www.iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_1c144792-b36d-11e2-8ac6-001a4bcf887a.html?TNNoMobile

              Money quote: “You anti-gunners out there will lead us down a path you do not want to go down. Your lack of care and understanding of those who abide by America’s oldest and deepest-rooted tradition will cause a social rift in this country of the likes we have never seen in America’s young history. Your lack of understanding chances causing a civil war — a civil war that will be far worse, more acrimonious, more prolonged and more deadly than the last one.”

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                1. Yea– but they want to change the entire culture– if they got the guns, then they can assume that we are disarmed– and can be better controlled for the next steps. If I sound like a conspiracy nut– my father was one– sadly I am seeing the things he predicted in the 1970s. Just waiting for the faithful DEMs get tagged (computer chips under the skin)…

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                  1. Exactly, they want to change culture – to make individualism itself scorned and socially unacceptable.

                    And that is the primary motivation these days of the gun control crowd. They know that the measures that they propose are ineffective in actual crime control. Its not about crime at all, nor criminals. The point is to make it more legally risky to own firearms – they introduce legislation filled with criminal “traps” for the law abiding. They are motivated to “get at” a culture they abhore and despise.

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                    1. What bothers me is the bunch of them who believe they will be on top when they change the culture– look to history– they will be either killed or subjugated with the rest of us. And then the killing will start– dumbsh-ts

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                    4. What I don’t understand is why they can’t move anywhere. What they want here already exists most places in the world. Why must they bring it HERE instead of just going THERE?

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                    5. The same reason the Kalifornia crowd wants to change Colorado. They don’t see a problem with what they’re doing.

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                    6. Also I think there’s some of the Bullwinkle attitude there (“This time for sure!!!”) and they can’t admit that what they want isn’t ever going to work no matter how many time they reach into the hat.

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                    7. “What I don’t understand is why they can’t move anywhere. What they want here already exists most places in the world. Why must they bring it HERE instead of just going THERE?”

                      1) That wouldn’t let them punish the people they hate.

                      2) It’s not really about the policies, it’s about having the power to impose them.

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                    8. Don, I think you may be right. They can’t admit their ideas may be making things worse, so they’ll keep trying until they get it right–no matter the cost.

                      Sarah, I don’t think they can just let us be. I believe much of this comes from a deep rooted insecurity about their beliefs. When they see differences, it forces them to examine their own beliefs. Our schools have long abandoned teaching children how to think, and instead teach them what to think. As a result, people don’t have the tools necessary to make an informed decision. All they know is someone disagreed with them and they have to put a stop to it to make themselves feel better. Moving away won’t change that–they have to homogenize all ideas first.

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                    9. Remember when Rosy O’Donnell and a bunch of other leftists swore they would move to France if Bush got reelected?

                      I really wish they would have told the truth for once in their lives. There’s Kennedy Int’l, I’ll even help pitch in for tickets, just don’t let the door hit you in the $#@ as you leave.

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                    10. I wondered how many votes were moved by it: “I was leaning toward Bush, but when I heard a vote for Bush was tantamount to a vote for Rosy to leave the country, … well!”

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                  2. Embedded computer chips? Yeah, I can see it and in my darker moments I have the uneasy feeling that this is not far off — sold to adults under health care, i.e., ‘So your care givers will always have your necessary health care records, even if you are brought into the hospital from a horrible accident (or the side lines of a marathon) in a state of unconsciousness.’ and sold to parents initially as a safety precaution for their children (I believe this is already going on), eventually required for school attendance.

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                2. Running back down this line, I see and think: ah, yes, if only. For example, the content of some speech expresses things that I think are truly horrid, disgusting and repulsive. I would rather no one ever thought, no less said, such. Yet, so long as these words do not rise to an active insightment to riot or the otherwise constitute a direct and immediate endangering others and/or their property, I can see no Constitutional reason to justify legally limiting it. But our legislatures have, and for the moment the courts have failed to overturn them.

                  From Scene 3, 1776:

                  Hopkins: So, it’s up to me, is it? Well, I’ll tell y’ — in all my years I never heard, seen, nor smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn’t be talked about. Hell yes, I’m for debatin’ anything — Rhode Island says Yea!

                  In some cases I just won’t hang around for the particular debate.

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              2. I don’t know about “more prolonged”. It’s likely to be fast and furious if it goes hot.

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  7. I’m in Texas, which is one of our stoutest redoubts (with the exception of Austin, which we allow to exist for the amusement value) so I think we’ll be safe here … but the weather is awful; we joke that the summer heat keeps out the riff-raff.
    My daughter says that in the case of it all going pear-shaped, she will withdraw to Canada, or even as far as New Zealand. Me, I’m the one who wants to stay and fight.
    No retreat, no surrender.

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    1. The thing is that New Zealand is what the Socialists here want, they just don’t know how to do it.

      I spent about 10 days there, and have looked at moving there for a while. It’s a very, very beautiful country, but the gun laws are stupid (you’re basically not allowed to use one for self defense, but it’s fairly simple to get the state’s permission to own one) and they’re a *very* top down country.

      OTOH, it’s sparsely settled, the quality of life is high, crime is relatively low and it’s really, really beautiful there.

      If it weren’t for the stupid gun laws I’d accept the state control and go.

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    2. Hi from Austin. :-p
      Seriously though, Texas is starting to purple. Freaks me out. We moved here after law school because that’s where my wife’s family is, and I love it here. I love considering myself an adopted Texan. (Wife’s a native Austinite, rare as they are.) If you look at the electoral map, what you see is that almost the entire southern part of the state went blue last election, as did Harris county (Houston). And with new groups here in the area with a specific goal of making Texas blue, it’s going to take organization and a group of small-government minded people with big mouths to slow / stop the encroachment.

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      1. You could move north to Dallas. However that’s not a sure thing. Dallas has a Democrap mayor. On the other hand, I think that the Dallas suburbs are OK. Plano’s nice :)

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        1. I have a good AF buddy – Pat Miner, who retired and went to Plano and got into politics. He’s a stand-up guy, the best all-round military broadcaster I ever worked with – and that he is involved in small-city government is about the best reccommendation I could have for Plano.
          http://www.plano.gov/Directory.aspx?EID=41
          Seriously – in 1982, I bought a used car from him. Best car I ever drove, and I drove that sucker for nearly 30 years.

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          1. Celia: Ah, the Very Elderly Volvo, no doubt. Great car, from your descriptions over the years.

            As for “where to move?” Nowhere is safe. All you can do is delay the inevitable. Even here in San Antonio, we have the Castro twins. Crypto-anti-gringo Marxists, the both of them. One’s mayor the other a Congressman. What kind of people elect people like them? Texans, sad to say!

            The Marxists are everywhere, there is no escape. They have reproduced by the tens of millions, through the schools. The teachers who teach the teachers were taught by those like Bill Ayers, ex-distinguished professor of education and before that the bomb-designer for the Weathermen. His last one was a nail bomb, rather like the two in Boston, but it went off early and offed his friends instead of those at the dance they were targeting. Bill has lots of company in spirit if not deed, in the university faculty lounges.

            The Occupy idiots seek it, but we here dread that day that is coming. Civil wars are very, very bloody. But I see no path away from that, for they have the levers of power and will force it on us all.

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      1. What “we” have to figure out how to do is to audit the vote “transparently” (and not for Lord Vetinari values of same) and demonstrate massive voter fraud. Because it WILL happen.

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        1. There a non biased look at what happened? Also as seeing I’m in virginia, where might I go resource wise before the next election to educate myself?

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          1. You might start with truethevote.org for a national view. IIRC they have links to local efforts and supporting web-sites.

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            1. Cool. I’ve tried googling for news but half the time I can’t make heads or tails of it half the time. I feel horribly lacking in news and such the past few blogs :).

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    2. It would be more interesting to me if I could watch it from the outside, sort of like watching a car wreck. Unfortunately, I live in Colorado so I get to see things blow up in my face.

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      1. If you can take our summers (Central A/C and ceiling fans are a necessity.) Texas is a good place to move. If not TX I’d recommend TN or IN or ND or UT.

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        3. As to living in Tennessee, I’d suggest that you avoid Memphis — for both the weather and the politics.

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  9. In the 70s the US was dealing with the wreckage from the 60s, horrible, leadership, oil embargoes, etc. The Soviets were creeping forward, cloud of dust and three yards, and their future looked inevitable. Then we got Reagan, Clinton, Gingrich and a generation of prosperity.

    In the 1970s China was like North Korea and looked to stay that way. Then Deng put them on the path to competing for world leadership.

    As the millennium dawned, it looked like the world was entering its Second America Century. Presidents Chimpy and Chumpy put paid to that. Today it is conceivable that the country will collapse within a generation.

    History’s apparently inevitable long-term trends can be broken by abrupt, large-angle, even 180° turns.

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    1. Now Russia is collapsing demographically, several of the former russian republics are Islamic terror states.

      China–a nuclear state–is threatening it’s neighbors and there is some evidence that they’re about to face internal economic collapse (especially if we get another Democrat in the white house who finishes off our economy).

      The central and south American countries are turning more socialist.

      Europe is trying to pull itself together into a single bureaucratic entity while at the same time it’s being torn apart by insolvency and cultural differences.

      And here at home we have a Fourth Estate that has transformed completely into a mouth piece for the left wing.

      Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.

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      2. My temperament is pessimistic. Over the years my intellect has gradually, intermittently developed a precarious optimism.

        My temperament could write your post.

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        1. That’s not pessimism. That’s realism.

          Pessimism is “and it’s too late to do anything”.

          Optimism would add “but die fighting, because the dead feel nothing”.

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    2. The nature international politics have a great deal to do with the wreckage. I don’t think that one can place all the blame, or all the credit upon the various Presidents alone. Although some, admittedly, played the hands that were dealt them far better than others.

      The 1967 embargo, an action that commenced with the 7 Day War, was against those who were seen as supporting Israel in any way. While we were discomforted, the greatest harm was done to those countries who depended upon the revenues from oil.

      The embargos that really slammed us were those of 1970s. The 1973 coincided with the Yom Kipper War. This, along with a domestic stock market crash, lead to the Nixon administration installing wage and price controls, further compounding the situation.

      In 1979 crisis started with the destabilization of Iran following the fall of the Shah and continued with the Iran-Iraq war. The Carter administration phased out the price controls that his predecessor had installed, and the price for a barrel of oil more than doubled to just under $40 per. The people, remembering the shortages of ’73, panicked fearing shortages, this resulted in long lines at the gas stations, which ran out of immediate supply. That seemed to confirm the people’s fears and a cycle began. (I gather that this is when the nation began to hear and accept stories that the oil companies were acting in collusion and profiteering, a thing which continues to this day.)) Meanwhile, the President put on a sweater to tell us that our best days were behind us.

      In the 1980s there was an expansion of oil production world wide, which meant that it was harder for the action of single group of producers or political instability in one corner of the world to drastically effect oil prices. With the rising supply the prices came down, and fuel was cheaper and plentiful. That came to an end with the expansion of world-wide demand that the rapid development of the economies of India and China have now placed on supply.

      Of the last two Presidents one wanted to expand domestic oil production, but could not get it through the legislature, the other, oversaw the shut down of operating oil rigs and promotes home insulation, wind farms and solar cells.

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  10. As a fellow Coloradan: HELLS YEAH. The Denver Democrats have pissed off way too many people this session to get away scot-free, and I mean to make them cry come 2014.

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    1. On the plus side I see in the news that there is a recall movement started in Colorado, attempting to recall at least three of the politicians primarily responsible for the anti-gun bills. What the chances of it being successful are I have no idea.

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      1. Have signed.
        Well, I don’t either, but we now got two calls as “Public service announcements” saying the recall people hired “vagrants, sex offenders and the mentally ill.” In point of fact, all signature collectors are volunteers.

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          1. Lovely. It gives one pause to think that this is thought to be a good way to put off people from signing a petition.

            I thought that vagrants needed employment so that they could become ex-vagrants. (Does anyone remember when we were being warned how many Americans were just a paycheck away from becoming homeless?) Aren’t we supposed to be compassionate towards the mentally ill, most of whom are not a danger to anyone, and offer them every chance to live a chance to contribute to their support and, thereby a chance for a more dignified life. I am not sure, but I think that even the soft-hearted are no longer inclined to argue that sex offenders having served their time have paid their debt to society. So I guess we can be prejudiced towards them But here and now vagrants and the mentally ill are being waved as bogey men, and the fact that the cold hearted gun nuts are willing to give them work is to be seen as a threat?

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        3. I hope you recorded those “PSA”s, since a good lawyer could do something with them. Not even political speech is allowed to be completely false, and just identifying the perps through discovery would be useful.

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      2. It is arguable how likely the recall is to succeed. One can do analysis of the recent elections’ and the recall targets’ margins of victory but recalls are unpredictable. And Bloomberg is obviously pumping in money to defend them. But making them spend money on campaigning is a message in itself.

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  11. Yes, TN is nice, he said with a smug look.

    But yes, I have to ‘bomb’ the house in the summer frequently. So far this year the cold snaps are keeping ‘our little visitors’ under control. And on the plus side its lengthening the time between turning off the gas heat and putting in the ACs so that saves some cash.

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  12. These are things I struggle with almost daily. We only just moved to Colorado last summer. About 45 minutes SW of your beloved Denver. Then it hit the proverbial political fan. My poor wife, dragged from the comfort of her lifelong home in Oklahoma to this strange and wonderfully beautiful higher altitude was left with her jaw agape as her husband talked of moving back to Oklahoma, or worse still, Texas!
    I’ve dreamt of living in Colorful Colorado for 30+ years. Since spending summer vacations bouncing around the San Juan mountains in the back seat of a Jeep. I’m not letting some Communist, left-wing political hacks from California destroy my dream. So I say, seek a higher altitude. Things are more easily defensible from above! Coming to you live from behind enemy lines.

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  13. Personally, I’m looking to find a viable line of retreat, perhaps some rental property income in a more friendly state that I can use to financially bridge transitioning to said state if where I’m living now becomes untenable. So far I haven’t cracked the code on how to do it.

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  14. Every time I read one of these (Victor Davis Hanson does them, too) I feel a twinge of guilt for making plans to leave San Diego.

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      1. I would be unsurprised in within the next 10-20 years, one or more of the major CA cities burned itself to the ground, either through riot, or stupidity.

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        1. I think that California has tried it already. The Watts Rebellion, six days of rioting in August 1965. Then, in Los Angles in 1992, six days again, starting on April 29th.

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    2. When you leave CA you’ll have more money in your paycheck and cheaper housing and cost of living.

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  15. Been going through this train of thought myself. I really want to stay in the Ohio River valley (but get out of Cincinnati), but the idiots in Columbus are making it harder every trip of the train. The Kentucky side is marginally better, but only marginally.

    And Tennessee, while more liberty oriented than Ohio or Kentucky, has other issues, not the least of which that it seems as though the eastern part of the state is getting ever-more crowded. Still: Smokey Mountains. Yes.

    I have family in Northern Idaho, which appeals, or possibly across the Divide in Montana. Or maybe Wyoming. But I really want a place where the trees aren’t ALL conifers. And where there ARE trees.

    And, for the liberty, Texas appeals mightily, but is there ANY place in the state that has a bearable climate?

    Or do we stand and fight on all fronts?

    M

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      1. ::sigh:: Yeah. I found myself musing this morning on the commute in. Every time you turn around, there’s some new Democrat importuning being rammed down somebody’s throat. They’re everywhere, as you say, like locusts. How do you fight? Well, maybe “we” (dunno who, just “we”) need to file a suit for civil rights violation against EVERY Democrat initiative. Sort of liberty-oriented SLAPP. Chuck Schumer wants to infringed on your RKBA? Haul his ass into court on civil rights charges. Your sherrif wants your neighbors to violate your 4th Amendment rights? Haul his ass into court. And so-forth. Keep it up until they learn the lesson or go away.

        I’m also beginning to wonder if we might be more unified if we stopped talking about First Amendment Rights or Second Amendment Rights or Fourth Amendment or Fifth Amendment and started talking about NINTH Amendment rights. And reinforce it with a Gantt chart — a single point in the middle of a large page to represent legitimate state power and a circle surrounding it so large it bleeds off the page representing the rights of the people.

        Yeah. I’m a wookie suiter. Proud of it, too. What’s it to ya?

        M

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        1. I am reliably informed and corrected that what I’m talking about is a Venn diagram.

          M

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    2. Continuing from earier, Charlotte wants 4 seasons, trees that are not all conifer, and some room. She has mentioned Idaho or Wyoming but isn’t sure. I’m still asking for some help, but don’t really have a blog.

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      1. I grew up in SE Idaho, in what Salon.com has called one of the most conservative counties in the country, and it was a great place to grow up. Of course, I hate snow. And fall doesn’t get all colorful – it just sort of gets more brown. And colder.
        And to give you an idea of what I mean by colder, they don’t let school out unless it’s at least 20 below zero. And that may have been adjusted to 25. (which reminds me of an amusing anecdote regarding a weather day, an attempt to get to town, two high-centered vehicles, and a lot of shoveling. Have I mentioned my hatred of snow?)

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        1. See now I love snow, and live in the southern part of Northern Idaho (if that makes sense, it does to the locals). Unfortunately I do live in the most liberal county in the state (liberal arts colleges tend to do that to counties), but while I have lots of snow in the winter (usually around three feet, but some years I’ll have five, and one year practically none) just a few miles south of me (like 4-5 as a crow flies) they may have snow one week a winter. Of course they have a lot more heat in the summer, and rattlesnakes, and less trees. We may have mostly conifers but deciduous trees grow well if you plant them (although then you have leaves that fall off and make a mess every year, I prefer conifers) and we do have lots of tamarack (larch to you easterners) which turn a beautiful yellow in the fall, and the new growth is a bright vibrant green in the spring.

          Oh, by the way, get a ATV with a snowplow, it beats shoveling all to heck ;)

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          1. thanks for the tips on location (and the tip about an ATV with a snow plow.
            growing up, Charlotte had family friends in Vernal Utah, and she just mentioned there when reading the responses.

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            1. I grew up around Vernal (from 8-22) and at the time I was doing everything I could to get away from there. I hear that since the oil boom that it has changed a lot. The original families were not always the nicest people– plus it was very small, small, small town (under 10,000 people). Yes we knew almost everyone. It was hard not to know everyone.

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          2. We […] have mostly conifers but deciduous trees grow well if you plant them “

            We’ve been looking your direction long-term; are there any areas near there with significant hardwood growth, particularly oak? I don’t mind pine, but I hate the three to four year curing time for firewood.

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            1. Tamarack is much better firewood than pine (red fir is actually as good as tamarack, but splits harder, and usually has the bark on it, so it is dirtier). I always cut dead snags for firewood myself (unless it is a downed tree on my property that needs cleaned up), there is no cure time involved then. I don’t know of any areas with significant wild oak populations, though there may be some in Southern Idaho. Most of the local wild hardwoods are not really of good firewood sizes or types. We get big cottonwoods, and the occasional maple, but while I burned a lot of cottonwood growing up it is a poorer firewood than pine, and the maples aren’t common enough to depend on for all your firewood. The lower countries have locust (good firewood if you want a lot of exercise splitting it), walnut*, and alder as well. (alder tends to grow as tag alder over 3000). Almost nobody around here burns hardwood though, because tamarack is similar in BTU output, and lasts a long time, while being much straighter and easier to split, stack etc.

              *I assume the walnuts were originally domesticated, since they exist mainly near populated, or at least formerly populated, areas, but they do quite well on their own. They make excellent firewood, I just think it is a shame to cut nice gunstocks and cabinets into firewood ;)

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              1. That’s fantastic information, thank you! The next time I make it up that way, I’ll have to arrange to buy you a drink – that’s the quality and quantity of information I usually trade good food or drink for!

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              2. Sigh. One more reason to like calling NC home, the wide varieties of trees. Hard and soft wood, deciduous and evergreen — we have it. One of the first facts I read about the county I live in was that we have more different kinds of flowering trees growing here than there are in all of Europe.

                Years ago I had a friend from Ireland who I drove up to Washington, D.C.. As she watched the countryside, which I had largely taken for granted, pass by outside the car window she made an observation which stuck with me. Although her homeland is known as green, and it was certainly green, NC is more so. (More of it and more shapes and shades of it.)

                I agree that some woods have far better uses than burning. (That is, so long as you have ample wood.)

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            1. Ugh, agreed. I’m high enough up and far enough out that it doesn’t affect us much, but I lived in SLC for a while and the inversions were awful. At least in CA I had the Delta breezes to clear the crap away.

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              1. I’m in Provo and I think our air quality was as bad as Beijing this January. I hate not being able to go outside.

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                2. The summer I was working as a mother’s helper in eastern Tennessee, near Maryville/Alcoa, we suffered a prolonged inversion. Because of the manufacturing in that valley, the air held chemicals that, while it not really good for people and animals to breath, certainly lead to some of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen.

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    3. Dallas has a reasonable climate compared to South TX. You will get over 100 in the summer. We have trees that aren’t conifers.

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    4. The two years I lived in Blount County on the western edge of the Smokys were wonderful. I fell in love with the mountains. This was before the great population boom, and I can remember Pigeon Forge when pretty much all that was there was the forge and a potter. You had to go up to Gatlinburg of tourist kitsch. The Spouse, The Daughter and I drove through Pigeon Forge post Dollywood — my how it has changed!

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  16. As a very young H. P. Lovecraft fanatic, I decided I wanted to live in Innsmouth when I grew up. Or Providence, RI, whichever turned out to be real in this space-time continuum. I didn’t hold myself to it.

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  17. I live in a state that’s about as purple as you can get. Republican in the state house, Dem in the state senate. Republican governor. One U.S. senator Republican, one U. S. senator Democrat. Two (R) representatives, two (D) representatives. At the county level, two (R) supervisors, three (D) (it’s a city) supervisors. And it all burns. Over the past twenty years, given my disgust with different things, I’ve attended county committee meetings for both (D) and (R). And it all burns. Right now, I’m in the unenviable position of recognizing that we do, in fact, need government, and that I don’t like any of the levels of government we have. Does this mean that some of us need to step up, make the sacrifice, and run? Oh, please, could it be somebody else?

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      1. Well, Sarah, would you prefer knitting in the crowd as the blade drops and cheering the blood splatters? That IS a real possibility.
        Or getting involved (which, btw, you are with this thread) and seeking to alleviate abuses and change directions?
        I, being an ODD, find crowds scary. Loud crowds even more so. But sometimes trying to be a rational voice in the midst of dissension is a lost cause. Which doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.

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        1. Sarah crochets, I knit. Tee Hee. But I think that neither of us would approve of a terror, knowing what such usually bring — do you really want another Bonaparte?

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          1. So, Sarah’s a hooker, hmm?

            I’m bistitchual, myself, though non-practicing for the past few years.

            On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:56 AM, According To Hoyt wrote:

            > ** > CACS commented: “Sarah crochets, I knit. Tee Hee. But I think that > neither of us would approve of a terror, knowing what such usually bring — > do you really want another Bonaparte?” >

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            2. That reminds me, I promised to try and teach The Daughter how to crochet this summer — and she has been insisting that summer has already begun. (We did have some of it back in early March. I think that weather got transferred to this last couple of weeks.)

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                1. If we lived nearer I’d offer my services, but I knit in a rather usual way for the States. I am largely self taught, using pictures from a French crafting magazine. Just the pictures, the magazine was in French. People who have seen me knit and know something about it have referred to as a modified continental style. It results in the stitches lying in what is considered a reversed position on the needles, so I have to do a bit of adapting when using American or English patterns, particularly when they involve lace work. (This is why The Daughter choose to have someone else teach her to knit.)

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      2. I grew up in a politically active family. Please, unless there is absolutely no other choice for maintaining any semblance of your sanity, don’t do it to yourself and don’t do it to your loved ones.

        Besides, I think you can have far greater influence for good if you continue to blog and write books — Usain and Human Wave.

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  18. We just moved to North Metro two labor days ago, for a new job. My wife is already planning our next move – she likes RMNP and hiking and such, but the air is too dry. Oddly, she is looking at Tennessee (and North Carolina) – she wants to live in an area with inexpensive housing, four seasons, and near enough to mountains for hiking.

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    1. While the GOP may be able to roll back some of the Dem. excesses of the last 40 years (they are talking about doing away with the state income tax and replacing it with sales tax revenue among other things), there are far too many idiotic bills being introduced by GOP members for me to believe that the GOP is the party of “smaller guv’ment”. And Asheville has gotten about as wacky as Denver thanks to the influx of Florida Yankees looking for cooler summer climes.

      But when I can own twice the land in Texas for the same property taxes that I’m paying in NC, I’d be nuts not to be looking.

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      1. What can you say about a state that sent Jesse Helms and Terry Sanford to the US. Senate at the same time, and, not to be out done, kept it up with Jesse Helms and John Edwards?

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    2. I have lived in North Carolina for about forty years now and you can assure your wife that not only do we have four seasons, we have each of them several times throughout the year, sometimes all in one week.

      I believe that Tennessee, formed from the part of NC that the original settlers had no use for, enjoys similarly predictable weather.

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        1. There is a shelf of mountain turning east-west that creates a more temperate micro climate along the southwestern section of North Carolina along the boarder with South Carolina.

          OK, home educator hat on, did you know that climates of the state of North Carolina range from that of the Canadian Spruce Pine forests (in the Black Mountains) to the sub tropical (New Brunswick county)?

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  19. I was born and raised in Illinois which is a fine rural farming state dominated by that infected cancerous boil up there in the northeast corner.
    Moved to Huntsville, AL in 84 and never regretted the move.
    Used to say that in Illinois every major crossroad had two taverns and a church. Here in Alabama every crossroad has two churches, a gun shop, and a bootlegger.
    Bama used to be solidly Democrat until they shot themselves in both feet and considerably higher in a series of truly ugly primaries several years back. Mostly had Republican governors and legislature ever since with the occasional backsliding. Much of the state is still controlled by the teacher’s union and road contractors, though large land holders and timber interests have a good bit of influence.
    Huntsville, being primarily a city of immigrants from elsewhere, has what I consider a nice mix between small town and metropolis. Still, like all urban communities there is a pervasive infestation of the liberal progressive culture, very evident in the local newspaper’s position on education, gun control, immigration, and all the other lib/prog talking points.

    As for a fear of being alone, not by a long sight, kiddo. We ain’t a gonna let that happen. While DNA is a valid line of connection, it isn’t the best or most reliable, not hardly. I’m a strong believer that your real friends and family are the ones you gather to yourself and who respond by cleaving unto you as well. I have close kin who I wouldn’t cross the street to speak to, while I have real friends of the “help move the body” type who by simple observation could not be any blood relation to me.
    The reference, for anyone not familiar, is:
    Friends help you move.
    Real friends help you move bodies.

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    1. Good point. We may not be family by blood, but at least ideologically, we’re still “tribe”. (And you go back far enough, everyone’s family)

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          2. My family’s records were lost when we got evicted from the garden. That was the second time they were lost. The first time was when there was this big bang … we never did find what happened.

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                1. APPLE!?? Pfui. That was just a cover story, a bit of misdirection. Scholars could prove to you it was pomegranate, the same fruit that condemned Persephone to vacation in Hades six months of the year.

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                    1. While attending the regional farmer’s market for the annual herb fair this year, The Daughter was trilled to learn that there is a pomegranate that can be grown in our area. Well, one more reason to get rid of those stinking (literally) Bradford Pears when we can afford the cost of the removal. Although beautiful when in bloom, they smell like open sewage, produce no fruit and keep falling apart.

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                    2. ew on the pears.

                      I loved the beginning of school (October) because pomegranates were in season and mom would ALWAYS buy them and put one in my lunch bag. It was food AND entertainment…

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                    4. The Daughter is usually a very formal young lady and has a tendency to true Goth — without the makeup. It is to the great amusement of a mutual friend that, when in the company of trusted friends, that this normally serious person, will squeal in utter delight over cute kittens and bunnies.

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                2. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
                  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ”

                  (Its been a bit but I remembered it largely correctly …)

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                  1. …ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

                    And a what great deal of good that has proved for mankind. Seems knowing isn’t the same thing as understanding and doing, no?

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            4. Big Bang? IIRC, y’all were told not to touch that red switch, but noooo, someone got curious and now we’re stuck in a universe with crabgrass, cockleburs, and career politicians. People like y’all are why we can’t have nice things. ;)

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              2. Red switch? All I know is great-grandad said he had been trying that new yeast-flavored fruit juice g-g-ma had come up with, woke up, yawned, stretched and — kablooie!

                What kind of idiot puts a red switch out there with no safety lock, anyway?

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    2. I know Birmingham can be a hotbed of liberal wackiness thanks to UAB, but it also has some beautiful areas and was remarkably mild climate-wise as far as I remember. (I suspect I just lucked out for once.) Also, God eats breakfast at the Original House of Pancakes. Best breakfast food I’ve ever eaten, bar none.

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  20. I fell in love with Colorado the first time when I was 12, and we came here (from Louisiana) to visit my mother’s sister and parents, who lived in Pueblo. I didn’t like Pueblo, but the mountains called me. I even worked out a viable plan to get here: I would become a cadet at the Air Force Academy, graduate as an officer, and be stationed at Cheyenne Mountain Air Station.

    I succeeded in getting an appointment to the Academy, and made it halfway through my doolie year before a boxing accident sidelined me. I enlisted in the Air Force and came to Denver to intelligence technical training. I met my wife at the Denver USO, and we were married two weeks after I graduated from tech school.

    I NEVER got an assignment to Denver until very near the end of my career, when I came here for medical reasons. We’ve now lived in Colorado Springs for 23 years. We’re looking for somewhere smaller — like Divide or Canon City. We have to stay close by a military base, and to first-line hospitals (if such things continue to exist under Obamascare).

    I first saw things beginning to change here in the late 1970’s, when people began moving here from outside the state, and most of them were Democrats. Since the mid-1980’s, it’s been Californians moving here in droves. As soon as they get here, they start doing the same thing that forced them to move here from California. What’s that definition of insanity again?

    We need to stand and fight. We need to take back not only the state, but the country. I think things will crash, and be bad enough, we may have a chance to do that. All we can do is pray, and stand our ground against the stupidity.

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    1. Good Sir, I would be happy to buy you an adult beverage of your choice the next time I’m “in country”. Same offer stands for you Sarah.

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  21. I share with you the ‘extended family back home’ part of your post.

    I grew up in Mexico, and all my family is still there. They see each other many times a week. Their houses are beautiful, their traffic truly horrendous. I miss it – and can’t live there – both at the same time.

    But I HAVE that to reject. My children grew up without any cousins (except for the occasional trip) and almost no sense of extended family. To grow up here, which I wanted for them, I robbed them of the other. For me to do physics here, they missed out on grandparents.

    I have the roots – what have I given them? And yet they say they could never live there (which is true).

    There is always a steep price to pay. For choices. All their cousins are truly bilingual (Mexican private schools do their job in teaching the kids English – and my sisters all are bilingual). My kids refused to learn Spanish from me.

    I could not have done otherwise – but I know perfectly well what I paid, and what I decided for my next generation. The States are far from perfect – but ‘home’ is worse.

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    1. Yes. Same here. I’d have had to bend myself out of shape to live in Portugal, but visits home are fraught with guilt and not visiting is fraught with more guilt and I regret the kids not knowing the extended family. Robert is now — at 21 — learning Portuguese, but it will not be the same. And I regret that Marshall could not grow up near my dad whose clone he appears to be.
      But we do what we must.

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      1. Umm– I have the same problem in a way– (visits are fraught with guilt because I am not practicing the family religion)– cut off from extended family, etc. etc. However I am pretty close to a cousin who is also cut off from the family the same way– Plus guilt to go to family events that are not near a main-line hospital (same problem as Mike btw)–

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        1. The Spouse will quip that one of the problems with the northeastern intellectuals is that they are so provincial, they think everyone thinks as they do. While I love my Daddy, he and I have seriously parted ways philosophically. We try to maintain contact, but it is not very comfortable when the most basic assumptions in your understanding of life, the universe and everything are not the same. :-(

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      2. I grew up with lots of extended family all around me, but wasn’t close to any of them, I was a lot closer to a couple of families (very tightknit clannish hillbillies) that I grew up around. I guess I believed blood might be thick, but blood spilled together is thicker than familial blood. I moved here, I sold 10 acres to my parents, and they have a house here and one on the coast, and one cousin followed me and lives less than an hour away. Otherwise, my Grandma comes and visits about once a year, and one uncle comes and visits a few times a year, other than that I don’t really talk to any of my family, and don’t miss them either. (another cousin and her husband came to visit last year, and it may become a yearly trip for them, I did enjoy that, she has certainly changed since spending a couple years in Africa ;) ). I have went back once since I lived here, and while it was enjoyable to visit family and friends (actually went over a few times on business, but other than spending a few hours crashed at my parents and visiting one old school friend, I didn’t see anybody I used to know) three days was longer than I wanted to spend there.

        Some have tried to lay a guilt trip on me for not coming back to visit, I’m to stubborn for it to work. I tell them the road runs both ways, if they want to see me they can come this way, I left for a reason, don’t want to go back, and don’t plan on going back.

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  22. Colorado is home for me. I was born in Denver, grew up in the suburbs and right now I live in the not-nice part of Aurora. I can’t wait to get back over to Golden. My plan is to fight it out, however the fighting comes down. I’ve actually started arguing back at people who start spouting the Democrat talking points. I’ve changed a couple minds on some fairly benign subjects but it’s a start and something I plan to keep doing. I’ll keep doing it no matter what happens. The feds can come and get me if things go bad, but they have to make it through the neighborhood first.

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  23. I love the American West, the high places in particular. I have visited various points, from Washington, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, on down to New Mexico and Arizona.
    Beautiful, would love to live in the remote places.
    I also met some of the people that live in those places. Even the children you meet can tell you how deep the snow pack is, how much it varies from last year, and the year before that, and so on.
    There are places you can be fined or jailed for trapping rain water, water rights wars go on for generations.
    The hippies are boiling out of the nirvana they have created on the coast, intent on spreading the light eastward.
    The revolution may have political titles, lack of water will be the root of it.

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  24. Vile Progs, like cancer, metastasize given the opportunity. You need to buy time to repel the invasion. Try to get a public interest law suit brought, claiming that the proposed changes in voting lack sufficient controls to ensure against fraud and to protect the rights of renters against landlords seizing and casting their ballots. (I know that is stupid — which is why the LIVs will believe it.) You need to employ the Vile Prog’s lawfare technique, developed for obstructing voter ID measures, to buy enough time to vote the rascals out and repeal the law (contrariwise, allow the state to lose the fight in court.)

    A legitimate sounding organization would have to be created to front the project, called something like Keep Our Ballots Open, Legal and Democratic! Have spokespersons prattle on about the evils of intercepted ballots, loss of confidence in the legitimacy of the elected, and the wonderful tradition of Americans coming together as one community in our great civic holiday of Election Day. Warn against the evils of a dispirited electorate, treating voting like paying the utilities, and the increased cost to political campaigns with no fixed end point. Denounce corrupt party bosses eager to despoil our pristine state and, where appropriate, caution against the dangers of entrenched bureaucracies, such as in the schools where honest, diligent caring teachers are prevented from doing their best by restrictive labor union contracts and central bureaucracy. Caution against the excessive pension promises that cannot possibly be kept, citing the many California municipalities going bankrupt paying 90% of tax receipts to pensions for retired bureaucrats.

    Organize people to write letters to the papers, television and radio stations complaining about how impersonal the proposed ballot plan is, how much they enjoy sharing outings to the polls with their neighbors, what a shame it is to have spent so much of the taxpayers money on those fine voting machines, machines which will sit idle if the mail-in ballot is used.

    Find a few crazies to make arguments for the other side, too. Call in to local radio talk shows and bluster about how important it is for Colorado to move with the times, to get beyond any need to know the candidates or their positions on issues (that’s so, like, 20th Century.) Maybe let slip a comment or two about this helping make sure that “more of the right people vote.” The beauty of this is none of their arguments have to make sense; the depressing part is the difficulty of making any argument more absurd than what is already being put forth.

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      1. It seemed apropos, given Colorado’s history as a mining state. (Any subtler, darker meanings are just projection of racism by mean-spirited opponents desperate to smear proponents of ideas they cannot debate.)

        Like

    2. Is it weird that reading between the lines of this comment is the first indication I’ve had of what on Earth Our Hostess was talking about, when she started going all apocalyptic about changes in Colorado?

      Like

      1. No one is reporting it. They want to make it voting by mail only, and same day registration with no verification. This, because apparently the MASSIVE FRAUD involving vote by mail — I KNOW, I was a poll watcher — in the last election was not enough. Head>desk.

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        1. Washington has been entirely vote by mail for a while now. And we know how honest the politicians there are. Why look at Governor Gregoire, she was stating the honest to god truth when asked how many times they were going to count the ballots. She said, “We will count them until we win,” and by god that is exactly what they did.

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          1. Oh, by the way I had moved before it became entirely vote by mail, but had been registered as an absentee voter (because I worked out of town, and was seldom if ever in my voting district on election day) and received my ballot in the mail. I moved out of state, changed my residence and registered to vote in Idaho. Washington still sent me my mail-in ballot, even after calling them and explaining that I didn’t live in Washington any more, for three election cycles…TO MY IDAHO ADDRESS!

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              1. ALL our voter roles in CO are like this. People all over the country are registered to vote here. Now add vote by mail. Also, take in account when we moved to this house: previous owners, neo pagans, very left one woman, two grown children…
                We got … oh, heavens… might have been more than a dozen? registrations and absentee ballots in the mail, clearly for names not in that family. (They might have been names of other residents — but if so it was fourteen years back.) I contacted the voting people. They weren’t interested. I contacted the local GOP (all these registrations were D) and we stopped getting these in the mail. Does that mean they went elsewhere? Probably.

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      1. Flattered as I am by the compliment, current USPS regulations discourage distribution of a newsletter. I am appearing here nightly and encourage your continued custom of this fine establishment. Please don’t forget to tip your waitress.

        Like

        1. Your waitress is getting tired of being tipped, and would prefer to be able to finish her shift without being at an angle.

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              1. Could be — if Ted Cruz is not Hispanic, neither are you, and for much the same reason. If your ethnicity is a product of your politics, you are more anglo than Mitt.

                Like

        2. How’s the veal?

          I’m not intending on going anywhere, there are far too many interesting people here. And I intend to tip (well, but more of her books) the hostess as soon as my bank account resolves its current superposition between “0” and “not 0.”

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          1. BTW – the veal is excellent, especially in the port wine sauce, but you ought try the seafood. The kitchen really knows how to fling the fish.

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          1. It was proving too expensive to clean up after the heads exploding in California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois and the North Eastern states. There were also problems in USPS sorting facilities because those … people will browse any and all magazines coming through.

            Like

  25. (First time commenter here)

    Sarah, like you I’m a nationalized American. I grew up in Pakistan. When I was 10 or thereabouts, I ran across an American real estate magazine in my mother’s stash (don’t ask me why there was a US luxury home magazine in there–I don’t know). After scrutinizing it from cover to cover, I decided that the two places in the world I’d like to live when I grew up were Vermont and Virginia.

    Fast forward eight years. I end up going to a private college in NH, right across the river from VT. I meet and marry a white American man, and we end up living in the area, on the VT side. We buy a house in small-town Vermont, have kids, pick strawberries in the summer and apples in the fall, and love every moment of it (hmm, maybe not the snow shoveling as much, though the oldest kid is a power shoveler). After ten years, husband gets a new job and we move to…

    … you guessed it: Virginia. Granted we’re in No. VA, too close to DC (*sigh*– it really goes against my principles to live in an area booming because of its proximity to the federal govt. while the private sector withers), and not the really *pretty* parts, but still–Virginia!

    So I end up living in the two places I picked as a child. Somewhere up there, I can feel God smiling. :)

    Like

    1. I think it was part of his plotting. We’re the comic relief.

      Okay — not nitpicking, but I laughed at your first line. We’re naturalized, not nationalized. Although given what we pay in taxes, you’d be shocked ;)

      Like

      1. Argh, yes of course. This is what I get for letting my brain get ahead of my fingers. D’oh.

        (And I was so hoping to make a good impression the first time around. Ah well. At least now y’all know I’m not perfect. ;) )

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        1. Hey– I have been speaking and writing English my entire life and I get brain stutters and misspelled words. You are in a typo-forgiving blog. ;-)

          Like

        2. You’re not perfect? Then you will fit in perfectly here, as this lot is the most perfectly imperfect group you ever will meet. Some of our members are even pluperfect, and I suspect one of having been past perfect but I’m not one to name names.

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        3. You did make a good impression. BTW if you want to equalize things, page down to where I referred to CO’s dry hair (i.e. air.) :)
          More funnily, my brother and his friends, on average ten years older than I got so used to my tagging along they “nationalized” me as “the people’s sister.”

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          1. *grin*

            I’m prone to malapropisms. There was that one time I thought I said “corn pudding”, only it came out as… Well you can guess. :P

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            1. Ugh, again. Not a malapropism. What’s it called when you switch syllables between words? It’s somewhere in my brain… *rummages*

              Like

                1. Our family claimed that the right Reverend (Spooner) was a blood relative. It explained so much. I was told this before I understood it was a joke, so it made for some fun times in Kindergarten…

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    2. Northern Virginia, I think id like to leave due to the traffic. Fairfax county. Erg but I don’t know where other jobs are :sigh:

      Like

      1. The job market here in northern Utah is good (for post-2009 values of good). A friend of mine fled California recently, and found a job here in about three days. We have four seasons here and a population that is increasingly liberty-minded. If you’re in the arts or tech, it’s a good spot to be. Kinda out of your way, but I’ve no idea how much that matters to you.

        Like

        1. I would like to stay by my family and they are in northern va,and Arizona. That and being wigged out over change. Looking for apartments up here is kinda annoying even.

          Like

      2. Yep, that’s where we are. We ended up in a place really close to my husband’s work, so his commute is actually better than when we lived in VT. And I schedule my kids’ activities close to home and not around rush hour, so I actually drive less than I did when I was driving 30-40 mins. one way for stuff.

        It’s working for us so far.

        Like

  26. *hangs head in shame* I ran from Colorado because it was a bad fit for me. Almost as bad as California was. The place where I seem to do the best is a tiny corner in southwest Virginia.

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    1. That a logical reason to move. Politics isn’t, because the bad stuff follows you.
      Colorado is a good fit for me, not the least the relative lack of pine tree polen. I’m deathly allergic to the stuff.

      Like

          1. I do understand, Sarah. My youngest daughter is allergic to pine pollen. There’s a pine tree in front of the apartment building next door. Between May and July, she could NOT go outside without having a problem. We looked at a piece of property down on the southern edge of the state. It was ALL Ponderosa pines. We decided it wasn’t right for us… 8^(

            Like

      2. That alone would rule out northern Alabama. Locally we refer to spring as “the yellow season.” Been several days that I had to run the windshield washers to be able to see out. Better lately since several days of steady rain, but the yellow peril will return and stay with us until stomped by the heat of summer.

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        1. I get migraines from the stuff. Clusters of incapacitating migraines. I thought the asthma and migraines were just part of me (I grew up in the middle of pine forests) — turns out, no. It’s an allergy.

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  27. Recently there has been much more talk on the ‘net of a “Second Civil War” than I like. Unfortunatly I cannot say that those predicting one are wrong. I would like to offer a possible alternative though.

    If it is about to come to shooting, go vigilante on those who are committing or, in a position of trust, condoning election fraud. It could be the difference between casualties in the thousands and the millions. It also has the possibility of leaving us with a nation rather than having to start over from scratch.

    Opionions anyone?

    Like

      1. I don’t think it’s a SANE subject to discuss. If it ever breaks out, then tactics are something to discuss. Until then, there’s little point and much danger of getting someone crazier than us (and that’s a far, far limb) to do something that none of us would approve of.

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        1. Safe, sane – who cares. It isn’t a smart subject to discuss. Why let them see our tactical operations manual, even if we have no expectation of following it?

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            2. Follow? Honey, I drive a manual, I ain’t gonna foller one!

              I mean, y’ever talk to the kinds of folks as write those manuals? ;-)

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              1. And they never reply to the letters they receive. Manuals are not very sociable.

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            3. “One of the serious problems in planning the fight against American doctrine, is that the Americans do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine…”

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            4. Well if it hits me in the nose I’m obviously following too close, and that is a definite reason to back off and take another route.

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            1. Used to help write crew procedures for astronauts. Believe me, they were much the same. Step by step idiot proof instructions, unless of course you skipped ahead thus missing some small but critical detail.

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  28. I moved to Colorado for a job, and hoped I would never have to move again. I have lived in NYC, upstate NY, Chicago, Connecticut, Texas, and now Northern Colorado, and DO NOT want to move again. Then last year I lost my job. Fortunately between some little side businesses, and being well known in my field, we are so far making ends meet.

    I am very unhappy with the drift to the left here in Colorado, and if things get too bad may feel compelled to leave, but I hope things can be righted. “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shown, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.” I have helped support groups that are trying to turn things around, but question if they will succeed.

    If we have to cut and run, we have family in Texas, but I wonder if long term Texas might drift as badly to the Left as has Colorado.

    Like

    1. … but I wonder if long term Texas might drift as badly to the Left as has Colorado.It is on their target list. It is inherent in the VileProg program that alternative modes of conducting politics cannot be tolerated, as they would put the lie to the VP claim of knowing what the … er, of being the best, fairest, most enlightened of systems. Put “turning texas blue” into your search engine.

      All of which is to point out that you can’t run and you can’t hide — you’ve got to stand your ground and fight.

      Like

      1. Huh – I wonder what happened to the [BLOCKQUOTES] that were intended to set off … but I wonder if long term Texas might drift as badly to the Left as has Colorado.Oh! There they are!

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        1. I give up. Obviously

          … but I wonder if long term Texas might drift as badly to the Left as has Colorado.

          doesn’t want to be blockquoted.

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      1. Texas WAS blue not to long ago, which of course causes the Left to fight even harder to get them back, while at the same time never admitting that someone in their fold could ever consider the greener grass in the pasture better eating than the moldy hay dumped in the manger in front of them.

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        1. But that’s why the voting by mail in CO. You go voting by mail, you don’t go red again — CO was NEVER really red, except for Boulder. But our Reps were corrupt and people thought “We’ll give the dems a chance.” Let me say right now, I wasn’t one of these people. I KNEW what would happen. They come in pre-corrupted.

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          1. I have the same problem, Sarah, but what decent color is left? Red, Blue, and Green are taken, and purple is kind of corrupted. Gold? Silver? I’m all for a new party, myself. Let the Tea Party declare it will no longer support the “Country Club” Rethuglycons, and become a full-fledged political party on its own, with some decent candidates. In three elections, both the “red” and the “blue” would be replaced with Tea Party gold, standing on the principles laid down by the Founding Fathers. I could REALLY support that, but even now, the Tea Party is attracting some pretty serious riff-raff.

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            1. I have a problem with Red also, but I don’t know that the mud-brown color of tea is a lot better. Imagine the jokes if we were the Browns.

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    3. The drift (or pull) is going on, but more Texans are watching and trying to stop it. Houston-Austonio is a pain, as is the Valley (where corruption goes back to before LBJ), but the election of Ted Cruz and other things are good signs that people are awake and talking. We may not have enough to stop the worst offenders (Harris County, November 2012) yet, but we’re learning from other states and trying to hold on, then push back.

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        1. And may God return some sanity to Austin. (I lived there, folks, right off the MOPAC. The only years worse were the ones in Dallas. Awesome music, though.)

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            1. It wasn’t Dallas’s fault. CEO of the company my dad worked for at the time did some shady stuff and set my dad up as the fall guy.

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      2. Harris County is the armpit of Texas. There are some very nice things in Houston, but the politics are as muddy as the nearby swamps. I know — my brother lives north of Houston in Spring, and I have relatives in Deer Park, Channelview, Baytown, and Galveston. They keep me informed.

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    1. Seriously I wanted to be a vet, a doctor, or an opera singer. Didn’t reach any of them. ;-) I did finally get a degree at 40. Worked in electronics for ten years. I did want to travel the world (and I did get to see a few places). But it has been a very different life than I was envisioning.

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      1. Sigh. Writer was my “settling” ambition. First I wanted to be an angel. Then I wanted to be a first communion girl (I was in it for the dress. I thought it was a regular job for the rest of your life.) Then I wanted to be a cat.

        Writer was my most PRACTICAL ambition.

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        1. At four, I wanted to be a mommy (just like my mommy). Then I wanted to be a writer. Then I toyed with being an architect, a chemist or a high-level official in the UN (I imagined myself bossing around other countries–*shudder* what was I thinking??).

          In the end, I became a mom and a writer. Sometimes your earliest ambitions are the ones truest to yourself.

          My 6yo daughter wants to be a cheetah. If not that, then either mommy, rhythmic gymnast or writer. She could be all the latter three, and throw in cheetah handler for good measure.

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          1. Yeah, every time I hear someone asserting you can be whatever you want to be, I remember a novel where a three-year-old wants to be a ladybug when she grows up. No one laughed, but — she’s not going to be a ladybug.

            Like

            1. When my son was three or four, he had quite a long period (a couple of months, I think) where he wanted to be a dog. I told him I didn’t mind him being a dog, but I insisted that he had to give me boy kisses, not doggy kisses.

              On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 3:55 PM, According To Hoyt wrote:

              > ** > Mary commented: “Yeah, every time I hear someone asserting you can be > whatever you want to be, I remember a novel where a three-year-old wants to > be a ladybug when she grows up. No one laughed, but — she’s not going to > be a ladybug.” >

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              1. Robert wanted to be … anything… on Mars. Then about ten he settled on wanting to be a brain surgeon… on Mars. If he doesn’t get into med school, I hope he still gets to go to Mars.

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                1. I understand his desire– I wanted to travel and live… on the moon. I also wanted a personal spaceship (you know– no different than having a car). *sigh

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              2. I’ve found that most kids who are pretending to be dogs can be appeased by scratching them behind the ears.

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                1. At the risk of making it sound like my kids are nuts, periodically when they need attention and are too “grown up guy” to ask, they still come up and purr and meow, until I scratch the tops of their heads…

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                  1. One day, several years ago, younger son came up to his mother and asked for some of what she was eating, and was kind of bouncing up and down, so she said he was like a little birdie looking for food. For years after that, occasionally he would go over to her while she was eating something, tilt his head back, and say, “birdie, birdie”.

                    Like

          3. The Daughtorial Unit would have me advise against cheetah-hood. Evolutionarily they don’t have much of a future.

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            1. I’m talking about a kid who still hasn’t accepted that unicorns might not be real. I don’t think I need to spring the eventual demise of the cheetah on her quite yet. :D

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          4. When Stephanie was in kindergarden, she wanted to be a mommy, a Smocker (mom’s business/hobby), and a bus driver. Thanks for everyone sharing the delightful desires of the young children.

            Like

        2. Well– I did have the voice to become an opera singer *sigh. But when I wanted to do it, I was working two jobs and trying to pay for college (only place at the time I could get the training). I gave up– when something is that hard I have come to the conclusion that it might not be the right thing– to do.

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        3. LOL. My first ambition was to be a nun. Then a dinosaur, astronaut (I still love *nuns in space!*), then a mom, then ungendered pure mind. (don’t ask) But I knew instinctively I could not live alone– I needed a Friend to live with for the rest of my life. Then an archeologist, artist, a medical illustrator… Sad to say, but being a professional photographer was one of the more practical things I ever did. Oh, and web designer, a jewelry designer– but I’m too lazy for either of those. One day I woke up to discover I was a writer. I didn’t want to be a writer because mom thought I should be one, but I was anyway, and I was on this “hep to reality” kick anway.

          Still not really paid for it, but I’ll get there someday. I fear that by the time I actually finish something, it will be impossible for me to sell it thanks to… various things.

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        4. I wanted to be a travel writer, specifically for archaeological and history sites. Well, um, I’m a writer! and I minored in history in college. Kids kinda put a damper on the travel plans, though, but I still have about 13 years before I planned on hitting my ultimate goal.

          Like

    2. When I was about eight, I decided I wanted to be a fighter-pilot. I actually made a fairly good start on it before my accident. It not only messed me up enough i washed out of the Academy, it also affected my eyesight. I spent 26 years in the Air Force looking at imagery, instead. It was a good life, and I enjoyed it.

      Like

    3. I was going to be an astronaut. Until Challenger.

      I was going to fly helicopters for the Coast Guard. Until my eyesight got too bad.

      I was going to be a particle physicist. Until I realized I can’t speak Math.

      I was going to be a Master Chief. Until I learned I can’t avoid telling idiots that they’re being stupid.

      Now I’m a radiological control technician. Let’s see how long that one lasts.

      Like

      1. I was going to be an engineer. I transpose digits… and I didn’t figure out the tricks to avoid doing it until it was no longer a possibility. OTOH younger boy who is my clone (well, my dad’s clone since he’s male) is in engineering.

        Like

        1. My problem lay in an inability to go from equation A to equation B. Show it to me and I could follow every step. Ask me to do it and I keep going around in circles. “And we divide both sides by zeta and…we wind up with the starting equation again.”

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          1. Oh, I understand the theories beautifully and can come up with new ones (part of how I got my husband. Hey, geek girls fight with what they got) I just can’t get to the end without transposing digits, which means the result will be… uh… funny. (As in, we plunged a probe HOW FAR into the surface of Mars? funny.)
            I say I love math but it’s unrequited. :-P
            It affects my carpentry too, so I have to measure four times, give up, bring an adult into the room who will check the measurements, then make sure you applied them right before cutting. (For this application the five year old was the “adult” at times.)

            Like

            1. Sharp edges and my hands have a magnetic attraction to one another. Couple that with my general inability to grasp the concept of controlled hitting of objects and you have a poor recipe for success in carpentry. Machinery is better, since there’s a higher tolerance for “pound the crap out of it.” Though there tend to be more sharp edges (that’s how I found out what it feels like to have your skin turned inside out). All in all it’s a wash.

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              1. I was my grandad’s “boy” — ie. apprentice and he was a cabinet maker. I didn’t learn enough to make fine furniture (If I KNEW the way the world would go, I would have.) But I can refinish, repair, and generally enjoy myself immensely. Next house MUST have a workshop. One the kittehs can’t walk through when varnished pieces are drying!

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                1. Fighting stupidity, trying to tell cats where they cannot walk, what is it with you and impossible tasks?

                  Like

                2. OMG! You need to meet a friend of mine in Denver. He builds armor for Society of Creative Anachronism folks…

                  Like

            2. I used to calculate B-52 ARCLIGHT boxes. B-52s can fly 10,000 miles or more. You have to take into account the curvature of the earth in plotting their courses. You also have to calculate fuel loads, refueling points, and a ton of other stuff. Spherical trig is essential. I had no trouble with doing all the calculations, but I ALWAYS had to have someone else double-check my work, because I, too, transpose digits, and have a huge problem adding and subtracting (sometimes with me, 2+2 DOES equal 5, at least in my head). My boss would double-check my work, and make sure all was correct before passing it along up the chain.

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              1. I don’t transpose digits, I just add totally random ones at random, much harder to fix than simple transposed digits. I used to survey with a guy that was dyslexic and transposed digits, the two of us were worse together, because we would get to BSing while working. Our boss used to claim that we were causing his hair loss, because the two of us on a crew could accomplish twice what any other crew could in the field, but it took him twice as long in the office to figure out what the heck we did.

                Like

      2. I was going to be a particle physicist. Until I realized I can’t speak Math.

        I was going to be a Particle Physicist. I would have been good at it, too. Until I realized I couldn’t keep my mind on school. Younger kid is about to graduate high school, though. I’ll be back. CERN should be afraid, because I can cause improbable occurrences in anything.

        Like

          1. Don’t know about that, but do you remember when people were worried that they would create a microscopic black hole? Yeah, that IS theoretically possible at those energies…

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            1. Possible, yes, but my understanding is that it would evaporate long before it could pick up enough mass to be dangerous.

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              1. Yes, the probabilities for that are low enough that I’m not likely to be able to affect them enough to become dangerous…

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        2. I was going to be retired by the time I was forty…okay I’m done laughing now. I was going to be a professional guide, tried that, found out I don’t deal well with babysitting idiots. Then I was going to have a JOB, not a career, so I could work standard hours and when I clocked out I never had to think about work until I clocked back in. I actually did that for quite a few years, and it is a good low stress route to go, but I found it just didn’t give me the flexibility I wanted. Now I am mostly self-employed, and while I would never admit to having a career, I have all the headaches of one, and have to tilt my head to the side and squint to claim it isn’t one.

          Like

    1. My wife has been telling people “We’re not from Texas but we’re getting there as fast as we can.”

      Like

  31. Well, I once again find myself blessed to live in Kansas. NO ONE wants to move to Kansas. We do have our (tiny) liberal outpost in Lawrence, but we keep them fenced in on the Hill there.

    If you don’t know why that makes me happy try googling kansas and nullification. Then get back to me.

    Climate — Blech. Summers over 40C winters down to -40c the worst of both worlds, tornados, drought, arctic cold fronts. We recently had a front come through that had a FIFTY degree temperature drop in less than 40 miles. 25 MPH winds are called “breezes” here.

    And, there’s the 2/3 of the state that has essentially no trees.

    and the highest spot in the state is in a pasture near the colorado border…

    But, politically, it’s pretty easy to live here. There is, for example, no such thing as a business license. Right to work, at will employment, low cost of living, and last week we were sitting next to the Governor at the local Mongolian Barbeque.

    I know, I know Kate Sebelius is our fault, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

    Kansas knows how to hold grudges. Just ask any of the students at KU why they hate Missouri. No, 150 years isn’t enough to forgive them for burning down the town.

    How do kansans feel about freedom? Is John Stuart Curry’s primary mural in the Kansas Capitol showing the abolitionist John Brown enough answer? http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/tour/graphics/curry_tragic_prelude.jpg

    Our legislators and governor walk past that every day. My daughter in law once said (while they were living just outside DC in Virginia) that if their children were forced to live in that slave state that the teachers would certainly get an earful when the time came. (they’re in Arizona now.)

    I can’t recommend moving here. Really. The climate sucks, there’s neither mountains nor ocean. On the other hand, that means that californians won’t be moving here either.

    Like

    1. Heh. I moved to NoCo *from* Wichita KS, where I had lived my entire life. I am done with KS (not politically, just… everything else).

      Like

    2. Kansas people are great. Kansas geography hates me. I have the tee-shirt from the Ice Storm of ’07, “enjoyed” the flood of May ’06, and tornado of ’08 (yeah, pick a tornado). Flew over the results of the 2002 tornado that got Pratt. Sib and spouse live in Overland Park. I’ll stay out where I can see the weather coming (ie. west of Garden City).

      Like

  33. I wanted to be a librarian but I gave up that dream when I couldn’t get into library school. Due to various medical issues and an extremely hard working husband, I’m now a wife.

    I had not ever thought that I’d have the life I have now, but I’m quite happy with it.

    Like

      1. I had expected to marry6. The unexpected part is being happily married to a high tech redneck of the Christian persuasion and living in Texas.

        Like

  34. “Robert wanted to be … anything… on Mars.”

    Weather sculptor? (Ducking and running …)

    Like

  35. Mrs. Hoyt, you cannot leave yet, I haven’t bought you the libations I owe you.

    And I still plan on one day going home and making a fight for it. I’d be there already if it weren’t for poor timing in home buying and sibling graduations. Like the tattoo says: HOLD FAST.

    Like

    1. I don’t want to leave. Inexplicably I’ve become not just American but Coloradan. I see no reason I should let them have MY state. (For those who read Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching Books, stated simpler “I AM the hag of these hills.”)

      Like

      1. Perhaps what we need is enough good people to move to CO to take it over. Like what the Free State project was supposed to do in New Hampshire.

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  36. I had thought I would be an Archeologist, Artist or Architect. Later I added Activist and Actor. Of the lot I guess I have I have been an Activist — no don’t ask for details, but while in high school I was consulted by students from Swarthmore — and I have long since given up that particular faith. I still hold that no government has the right to waste the lives of its military.

    If knitting counts some would say I am an artist. I beg to differ on that, The Daughter has long since surpassed me and her teacher in that field. She is looking at publishing her first design, and has asked me to knit a sample. This is the second time I have been asked to do this by a designer and I am thoroughly complimented.

    As to where I would live, I always though it would be in a major Northeastern Metropolitan center. No more, just keep me where there are trees, water and accessible mountains with elevations over 3000 feet. I have a particular fondness for the Blue Ridge Parkway. (Guided tours on request.)

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    1. I personally consider 6000 feet a minimum altitude suitable for me to live in, and 9000 feet as ideal. 10,000 feet, however, is the limit. I would make an exception for Silverton, but not Leadville. Of course, that still leaves me a third of the state to find a home in (according to Google Earth, I live at 6415 feet, but I can’t guarantee the accuracy of that.).

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      1. I took a friend, who had moved to the NC Piedmont from outside of Denver, for a day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After a morning at the Folk Art Center, we had eaten lunch in Asheville and then proceeded north up the Parkway towards Mount Mitchell. When we reached one of the first overlooks in that section, at 3,500+, she laughed at me. She joked that she where she had lived you would have had to dig for that. She continued that she had lived at 8,000 some and that there was about another 6,000 above. At 5,000 she admitted that the air began to smell like proper mountain air.

        Mount Mitchell, which stands to the west of the Blue Ridge Parkway, is the highest spot east of the Bitterroots. It may seem small with with its 6,684 foot elevation, but try standing atop it in midwinter. With nothing taller around to stop the winds, you will hear things that will make>/I> you believe in Banshee.

        Having been to Albuquerque I know that there is higher elevations and that I really like them. My friend who lived there was surprised when I was energized getting off the tram up the Sandias. Yet I am still attached to tall trees, copious greenery and water. That, as far as I can ascertain, is not an usually option in the Rocky Mountains.

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        1. ” Yet I am still attached to tall trees, copious greenery and water. That, as far as I can ascertain, is not an usually option in the Rocky Mountains.”

          It’s there, you just have to head farther North, and higher elevations. Tree line is a strange thing, I grew up on the coast of Washington, the tree line (elevation where you get to high for trees to grow) in the Olympics is about five thousand. Then I moved here and trees grow much higher, and the low tree line (where you get to low for trees to grow except in the creek bottoms) is around two thousand. Then I went to Wyoming and spent time in the Bighorns, there you have to get quite a ways Above five thousand to hit trees (more like seven) and I’m not sure what elevation the tree line is at, but I’ve been around eleven and still in the trees.
          Wyoming was the first place where I ever noticed elevation affecting me, when I first got there I discovered that at ten thousand feet I couldn’t hike hard enough to make my legs burn; because I couldn’t get enough air. After a couple weeks I adjusted, but it came as a shock to me, because I had spent a fair amount of time at what I considered high elevations (5-7000) and had never noticed any effect.

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  37. And when some nut gets it into their head that “it’s time NOW” and starts shooting, what are all the Marxist “journalists” and “opinion leaders” going to do? Cower in terror? No, they’ll scream that they were right and all those evil Tea Party Terrorists have to be rounded up–right now! Soon thereafter an FBI team will be knocking on your door after having found this post. Soon thereafter, they’ll be after me for just having once been a tea party leader.

    It’s like then “N-word” when you’re as white as myself. We all know you can’t say that. But you just did. My suggestion: Don’t say such like that!

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    1. Unless they got everyone in a fell swoop, that would really set the rebellion off.

      Remember what triggered the Spanish Civil War: leftists arresting an opposition politician on ridiculously specious charges and turning his tortured body over the morgue a few hours later — and suffering no punishment for this.

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  38. The Historian Arrives.

    America’s first Civil War — who claimed victory?

    Now, consider: If they *really* “won”, then why were the people they were trying to help *still in a state of second-class citizenship one hundred years later*? More, why was the side which “lost” back in power in all its old dominions [ahem] in less than a decade?

    Some “victory”, huh?

    The fact is: Unintentionally, the South followed E. Porter Alexander’s advice to Robert E. Lee — after its formal armies were disbanded in 1865, those very same troops spent the next decade making life a living hell for the Northern occupation troops, and the blacks the Radical Republicans were trying to protect. Anyone who tried to build a school for blacks — murdered or run off. Any black with military service? Murdered. Any black who could read and write? Murdered. And those murderers were protected by the locals, who may not have been the judges, but were damned-sure the juries (ever wonder why lawyers and judges shit themselves when they hear the phrase “jury nullification”?). Meanwhile, the do-gooders tried to respond with Words, against people who used Guns.

    Does this sound vaguely familiar? One side with Words — one with Guns; the side with the Guns won.

    It took less than a decade to reverse the “verdict” of the battlefield. How? Simple — Terrorism: It Works. Always has — always will. (There has been exactly one successful anti-terrorist campaign in the modern era; before that, only the Romans had any success dealing with them — and they did so by being Even Worse.)

    The conclusion all of you should be coming to at this point is obvious.

    “Give me your kings — let me squeenze them in my hands/
    Your puny princes, your so-called leaders of your land/
    I’ll eat them whole before I’m done/
    The battle’s fought and the game is won/
    I am the one, the only one/
    I am the god of kingdom come…. “

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