Israel’s blog

Quoted from an opinion piece by Ted Rall.

"When it works, nothing is better at creating an endless variety of reality TV shows than free market capitalism. But when it doesn't, it isn't just that extra brand of clear dishwashing liquid that goes away. Businesses fold. Banks foreclose. People starve. And no one can stop it.

The G8 nations met in Osaka last week to try to address soaring food and energy prices--a double threat that could plunge the global economy into a ruinous depression. But the summit ended in failure. "Any hope that the G8 meeting would result in coordinated monetary action--or concerted intervention in foreign exchange markets--to counter rises, principally in commodity prices, was dispelled by their failure to agree on the phenomenon's underlying causes," reported Forbes.

So the G8 ministers punted. "Due to the lack of consensus, they have stated the need for further study," wrote the magazine.

The problem isn't the weak dollar or the non-existent housing market. It's capitalism. A sane government doesn't leave essential goods and services--food, fuel, housing, healthcare, transportation, education--to the vicissitudes of "magic" markets. Non-discretionary economic sectors should be strictly controlled by--indeed, owned by--the government.

Consider, on the one hand, snail mail and public education. The Postal Service and public schools both have their flaws. But what if they were privatized? It would cost a lot more than 42 cents to mail a letter from Tampa to Maui. And poor children wouldn't get an education.

Privatization, particularly of essential services, has always proven disastrous. From California's Enron-driven rotating blackouts to for-profit healthcare that has left 47 million Americans uninsured to predatory lenders pimping the housing bubble to Blackwater's atrocities in Iraq, market-based corporations' fiduciary obligation to maximize profits that is inherently incompatible with a stable economy whose goal is to provide people with a decent quality of life."

This was taken from an article in The Buffalo News.

Following a whirlwind eight-month tour of all 44 Erie County towns, villages and cities, citizen activist Kevin Gaughan today is proposing a drastic move — dissolving all 16 villages in the county.

Under his proposal, unveiled during a noon luncheon presentation at the Harbour Club downtown, Gaughan is proposing that each of the 16 village governments merge into its surrounding town by 2012.

"This reform will place us among those successful communities unburdened by overlapping governments, reduce taxes, free more public funds for service delivery, and most important, reconnect citizens with their communities," Gaughan states in his eight-page written report to the community.

In the report, titled "Ending the Age of Large Local Government," Gaughan zeroes in on the high costs county residents pay for their relatively oversized village governments.

The numbers show that the 16 villages account for some 9 percent of Erie County's population, but 23 percent of the elected officials throughout the county.

One example: the village of Orchard Park has 3,147 residents and six elected officials, according to Gaughan. For the city of Buffalo to have the same ratio of residents to elected officials, it would have to have 445 Common Council members. Instead, Buffalo has nine Common Council members.

Gaughan knows the opposition that will greet his proposal. Politicians will claim that village government is needed to create the loveliness of Orchard Park, Williamsville and East Aurora.

"But the same quality of life exists in places like Eggertsville, Wanakah and Snyder," Gaughan states in his report. "And while these locales maintain services and setting equal to villages, they are not incorporated governments that add to our tax burden."

A village, he added, is not a government.

"A village is an idea, a sense of place, a community."

During his tour of the county's 25 towns, 16 villages and three cities, Gaughan attended 150 town and village board meetings.

Witnessing those local meetings, formal affairs that follow Robert's Rules of order, is akin to traveling back to the age of horse-drawn carriages, gaslights and frock coats, Gaughan wrote.

"Local government is our nation's most intimate level of government," his report states. "In Erie County it is also the most remote. By holding meetings in which decisions are pre-agreed — and limiting citizen participation — politicians have broken citizen spirit sufficient to have them all but give up.

"Which makes repairing the system more difficult."

All I really have to say is I totally agree.

Well, to start this one off. @$%^$% to grass laws. I grant that you should take care of your lawn, I just don't see the point in mowing every dam week, wasting gas and water becuase it's constantly cut short.

Someone filed a complaint with the building inspector on my yard.

I'll admit that the first time I cut my lawn it was close to 12 inches tall, but both my lawn mowers were busted and I live paycheck to paycheck and did not have the money to take them to get fixed and lack the knowledge of engines to fix them myself. I have been cutting the lawn every TWO weeks since then.

I admit there were 4 weeds that were over 6 inches tall in the front yard. Which I cut down, problem solved right? Wrong. 5 days later I get another notice saying there grass,plant or weed growth over ten inches tall. So I go and stand out on my sidewalk and stare dumbfounded at my yard trying to find this supposed plant matter that is over 10 inches tall, there are the FLOWERS in the flower bed that are over 10 inches. To take care of any offending plant matter I proceded to set my lawnmover to the second lowest setting and mowed the lawn down to root burning short like all the #$%# neighbors do, weedwhacked for hours. The $%#% building inspector is due by the house today. If he finds  supposed plant matter over 10 inches tall, I'm calling it quits with the crap ass village I live in, and my girlfriend finially gets what she wants, me selling the house.

Why,am I on such a rant, you might be asking. Well it is because the house right next door to me has weeds between my gargae and his garage that are close to 5 feet tall and yet no notice to him to cut the lawn. Looks like I'm filing abunch of complaints. There a couple of those inflatable pools in yards on my street, which the crap ass village makes you get a $150 permit to have up. So make the call and say hey do these people have permit for the blowup pool. People want to be assholes, I can be a huge asshole.

Well, I got the tank and have finially finished the stand for it. I have to say, I'm really surprised at how good looking the stand, came out seeing as I built it.

Picture 109

This is the start for the stand. Lovely framing ain't it.

Picture 112

All skinned with cheap plywood and wood puttied to hell and back.

Picture 113

After first coat of stain.

Picture 115

After second coat and trim added.

Picture 117

Last night after filling. It's very cloudy.

Picture 118

This morning 6 hours after last picture, it's alot clearer but still needs some work. I need to get more gravel and more plants and then let it cycle for a month and then I can add fish. :) I'm going to try my black thumb at live plants in this tank, we see how well that works. I'm also hoping that the driftwood I picked up does not take forever to get waterlogged. I might resort to siliconing in down to so heavy rocks.

I've been finding that I'm seriously stressed lately. I try to relax but am finding my normal relaxing actives just aren't cutting it, I normal go home and play COD4 with my normal xbox live group to relax. I find that even thu I'm playing a game I'm not finding it relaxing anymore, the guys I game with are cool dudes and don't taking their gaming way to seriously, so it's not the people that are causing me to not find it relaxing. I'm finding that it's the lack of having someone sitting across a table to interact with is what causing my lack of enjoyment.

There's nothing like seeing the looking on your buddies & the BM faces, when you tell the BM that your RamPython (think big lizards alien) is going to fire his .50 Cal machine gun (I told their big) out the back window of the bread delivery truck equiv. skimmer at the police skimmer that just happens to be in traffic behind you and has no idea that your party is making a get away from the shoot out you just had with a rival companys mercs.

I'm in serious need of getting a good RPG campaign going, my buddies are always down for starting up another Battlelords of the 23rd Century campaign but it always FAILS to happen. Our schedules are just so conflicting to ever get anything going and it SUCKS!!!

Well after many years of not keeping fish, I've decided to try my hand at it again. The last time I kept fish I was into large live food eating fish. Easy way to put that experience is my tanks and filters weren't large enough to handle that type of fish keeping, so it wasn't enjoyable.

This time around I've done alot of research into what I might like to keep and I've turned to a buddy that's big into his fish. I've decided to keep african cichlids, which my buddy had kept for a time and then got fed up with how nasty they are, he kept and all male tank. I on the other hand always have to try my hand at breeding be it reptiles, bugs and now fish, it's what keeps me interested in the animals in my care.

Overall of tank

This is that tank so far, it's a 55 gallon with an Aquaclear 110 and a Tetra Whisper for filter, a marineland powerhead that's rated for moving 300 gph, a aquaclear powerhead rated for 270 gph and the standard 48" lighting which I plan on upgrading.

Right now I have 3 goldfish and 1 koi that I rescued from the pond next door to me. The house was foreclosed on and these poor guys were left behind. They'll be going to my girlfriend's parents pond in the next week or two.

 I plan on keeping Pseudotropheus saulosi and Metriaclima estherae (Red Zebra). Pseudotropheus saulosi  the males are a nice blue with striping and the females yellow.  The Metriaclima estherae 

I'm planning on getting the males are a powder blue and the female are a bright red/orange. The powder blue males are proving hard to find around here. When this species was brought into the pet trade an orange male variant were the first males brought into the pet trade so being line bred that's what I'm finding is orange males and I want the blue males. 

Left side of tank

Right side of tank

Really I'm not. I've just been very busy with life. Helping the girlfriend get set up in her new place, and installing a dishwasher in my kitchen and varies plumbing issues resulting from dishwasher install, have been eating my time. I'm not going to lie the 360 has also been taking up what little free time I do have left.

I've been at the new job 5 weeks now and can honestly say I'm liking it. This place is alot less stressful.

Well nearing the end of the second week at the new job and I have to say it's not bad. People are nice, work is really no different then what I was doing. All in all I'm liking it.

Helped move the girlfriend into her new apartment, it's a small place but it's nice, she has done a great job at making it look like home. I guess that's what girls do best. I just can't understand why she just doesn't move in with me but oh well.

Waterworks 004

Just a quick Waterworks build update.

I now have the four walls glued together and the arches on two of the walls. Still casting the pillar pieces for the remaining walls.