Gopher wars continue...

We have been invaded by gophers. We have gophers everywhere, but they mostly invade the soil around our house - in the lawn, in my wife's flower gardens, and in our small vineyard. Now it's not like these little buggers are starving. We live on 20 acres with an estimated 600-900 oak trees, so they have enough oak roots to eat from now until eternity. But I guess the gophers are looking for more culinary delights like, "root of fescue grass with topsoil", or "root of marigold", or "root of agapanthus", and the more discriminating gophers go to our vineyard where they can feast on "root of Viognier" before dinner, followed by "root of Pinot Noir" for the main course.

This is a war, but we have discovered a new weapon; "The Gopher Tool", a subsoil bait injector. The "Tool" is a clever invention; it is a long probe with handles on the upper end plus a capsule with a crank. The capsule is filled with poison bait. The probe is pushed into the ground and when you feel a sudden lack of resistance, you know the tip of the probe has entered a gopher tunnel. You then turn the crank and a small door opens at the bottom of the probe and deposits strychnine poison pellets (coated with a special tasty "gopher sauce") in the tunnel. The gophers come along, feast on this delicacy and die.

We recently ran out of the pellets, which we have been borrowing from our neighbor. He said that to get a new supply, a government permit from the Department of Agriculture was required and his permit had expired. So being a lifelong taxpayer that has never depended on the government for anything, I decided to put the government in action. So the next day I went to our local DOA office. As I walked in, it was like a morgue but I could see several people behind glass windows "hanging out" in their offices. I was the only visitor in the building. I told the receptionist I was there to get a permit to buy "Wilco Gopher Getter" poison bait pellets. She said, "You need to talk to an Agriculture Inspector for that let me see if he is available". Unfortunately he and his office mates were obviously very busy behind the glass windows and she came out to tell me that he would have to call me back, and she took my name and phone number.

So I left the DOA, and on the way home I stopped at our local Farm Supply where I know a guy, who in addition to working at the store, has a 20 acre vineyard. I told him that I was at the DOA to try and get a permit to buy bait for my "Gopher Tool" and asked him if there was anything else I could use. He said, "We have the Wilco Gopher Getter bait" and took me to a section with a full shelf of what I wanted. He then explained that the bait used by homeowners like myself includes 0.5% strychnine poison and is available off the shelf. He said the poison that requires a permit (like my neighbor had) contains 1% strychnine and is normally only used in large vineyards and agriculture fields where they spread the poison pellets and then plow them into the ground so gophers eat them while they are digging their tunnels. Isn't it nice to know that the vines that grow our grapes and the agriculture we eat is grown in soil laced with a bit of strychnine poison?

Anyway, that evening I was back in action filling those tunnels with an evening meal for all the local gophers.

A week later...

Now originally this was going to be a sarcastic blog about our incompetent government, but I received a call today from an Agriculture Biologist with the local DOA. I must admit he was professional, personable, and very accommodating. He spent a lot of time with me literally describing the physiology of gophers, how this poison bait works, and why it is regulated and is sending me a booklet on gopher control. He said I made the right decision buying the lower dose poison bait since the higher dose is only used by large agriculture operations.

So even though they were a week late in responding to my problem, my perception is that at least this small segment of our government seems to know what they are doing.

"The great Obama facade"

'facade': a false, superficial, or artificial appearance or effect.

Today President Obama signed a budget bill that included more than 8500 "earmarks'". This was a candidate that promised he would eliminate earmarks line-by-line if he were president. Unlike all of the executive orders and bills he has signed (with much fanfare) in front of the cameras the past few months, this bill was signed in private without cameras. Later he made a short televised speech and stated that this was an "imperfect" bill, but in the future he will insist that Congress change their ways and he will clamp down on all earmarks. As I watched his head move from side-to-side reading the teleprompter during this short speech I was again amazed that this man cannot even make a short statement without reading something that was prepared for him.

Obama is the most closely managed politician I have ever seen. He seems almost incapable of speaking from his heart. He only gives interviews to friendly media. The few press conferences he has had have been ridiculous. The main stream media are his co-conspirators throwing him "softball" questions and he follows with long meaningless answers. As we have observed the past few years, "Obama says nothing better than it has ever been said before".

Even during a recent interview he made with the New York Times; when they asked him if he was a "socialist" he stumbled, and the interview had to be revised in a phone interview the next day. That next day Obama told the Times, "I thought you were kidding when you asked that socialist question". Let's be real - he didn't think they were kidding; his "handlers" knew that he got off message and immediately went into damage control.

This guy is a gifted public speaker and brilliant in front of a teleprompter, but I believe we are witnessing one of the greatest "political facades" in the history of American politics.

"The chute didn't open"

Yesterday the auditors of General Motors reported that they have "substantial doubt" that GM will be able to survive and may go into bankruptcy. This is after GM has received $13 billion in "bailout" funds and is asking for another $17 billion.

American International Group (AIG) has received a $150 billion "bailout" and are now asking for $30 billion more.

Citi Group has received $45 billion in "bailout" funds and is asking for more. Yesterday their stock dropped to less that $1 per share from a high of $50, as experts predict their failure.

Housing foreclosures continue to increase and today the House approved a $75 billion "bailout" program that will allow homeowners in trouble to refinance at more attractive mortgage rates and longer payment terms. These "bailout" rates will in many cases be MORE attractive than the rates being paid by homeowners that have been responsible by making their mortgage payments. In addition this bill will give judges the ability to "cram down" a mortgage - in simple terms, if the irresponsible homeowner can show they have "made an effort" to redo their mortgage, the judge can cram down the interest rate and possibly even the principle of the mortgage to ease their payments and keep them in the home. So if Obama eventually signs this bill, a judge may have the power to legally break a contract and decide that an irresponsible homeowner does not have to pay the price they agreed to when they bought the home. This stupid "cram down" provision will never work because lawsuits will stop much of this program and attorneys will get rich while the courts decide if this latest "bailout" is constitutional.

After throwing billions of dollars at these failing companies and bad mortgages, these "bailouts" have failed and our economy is falling like a skydiver whose chute did not open.

I am an advocate of letting market forces work; looking back here is something interesting - Bear Stearns was given no "bailout" money and they were allowed to fail. The market worked, the economy absorbed that business failure, and it is behind us. But we were told: "AIG is too big to fail". Could it be because AIG insures the Congressional Pension Plans? Most experts agree that one way or another AIG will fail or be broken up and us taxpayers will take it on the chin again...but what the hell, it's only $180 billion.

The stock market is a predictor of the future and it continues to plummet. The market has lost 3000 points since the Obama administration took over - the worst stock market performance for a new President in more than 100 years. Investors are standing on the sidelines wondering when the market will reach bottom. In my opinion it will reach bottom and start to turn around when our President and our moronic politicians in Washington stop the spending madness and say; "NO MORE BAILOUTS". The pain may be great, but the economy will recover and the country will be stronger. And after all, how could the economy get much worse?

Comparisions

This blog may be self serving but allow an ageing man an opportunity to "compare" himself to one of his own.
I saw this recent picture of my grand daughter Kelley who runs for the Saddleback College cross country team, and it reminded me of my running days. Even though my joints no longer work and my knees have been replaced with synthetic materials by a brilliant surgeon, I can still "race" vicariously through my grand daughter. If you have never been a runner this "comparison" will not mean much, but to me it brings back the memories of some great times and I am so pleased that Kelley loves to run as much as I did.