9 New Laws....

A great short-list of legislative initiatives that make a lot of sense and which I largely support. Let me know what you think .....

Abortion: I don't believe the rights of any mother should include the right to kill her child unless her own life is in danger. I'd like to see a Constitutional amendment banning abortion except when the mother's life is in danger.

Balanced Budget Amendment: The ONLY way we're going to be able to get the government to spend within its means over the long-term is to force it to do so with a balanced budget amendment. If the government wants to spend more than it takes in some years, then it better start saving some money for a rainy day instead of spending it all on pork.

Fifty-One Votes To Confirm A Judge Rule: Our judicial confirmation system hasn't functioned well in a long time and now it's totally broken. Quite frankly, I think you could make a case that the Senate can't Constitutionally filibuster judges as it is, but in any case, this is what we need to be doing.

Flat Tax: Long-Term, a flat tax would do more to keep America economically strong than anything else we could do. It would give almost everyone (the poorest among us would be exempt) a stake in keeping taxes and government spending low and it would lead to a wave of economic growth.

The Glenn Reynolds' End to Racism and Segregation Act of 2003: I took this one verbatim from Instapundit. "I think the Republicans should demonstrate that they're taking the country beyond the legacy of segregation by passing the "End to Racism and Segregation Act of 2003," which would provide that neither the federal government, nor the states, nor any entity receiving federal funds may take race into account in any manner in the making of hiring, firing, promotion, or benefits decisions."

Illegal Alien Crackdown: I'd like to see us: use drones & greatly increased manpower to patrol our borders, crack down on businesses that hire illegal aliens, refuse to let illegals have drivers' licenses or go to public schools and use the police to help hunt down illegal aliens. A work program that lets millions of Mexicans come here legally to work should be set up to reduce the motivation for people sneaking into the US. Furthermore, to free up resources to deal with illegal aliens, we should severely cut back on legal immigration until the situation is in hand.

School Vouchers: I'd like to allow parents to vote with their feet and their money when it comes to schools. Give parents a voucher for the full amount that is being spent on their child and let them pick the school they want to spend it in. That will lead to competition and a lot of bad schools going out of business while quality schools pick up the slack.

Term Limits: Because of gerrymandering and the advantages of incumbency, many people in the House and Senate in essence have "jobs for life". That's not good for Democracy and allowing a Congressperson to serve only three terms and a Senator to serve two would make sure that we get the turnover necessary to keep our government healthy.

Tort Reform: We are the most litigious society on earth by far and it's a huge drain on our economy. Implementing a loser pays principle & setting damage caps on the amount of money that can be handed out in a case (among other things) would go a long way towards restoring sanity to our legal system.

Here's an interesting point of view from Dr. Jack Wheeler (www.tothepointnews.com), equating abortion with slavery (as in the old pre-civil war Dixie days). It's his contention that we may be on the verge of turning the tide on abortion:

"...it was Democrats who seceded the last time from America, in 1861. They were in full righteous fury defending the morality of slavery. Throughout the Confederate States, slavery was known as “the peculiar institution,” with the moral right to own human beings as personal property unquestioned and believed in with fanatical zeal. Just like abortion in the Blue States today. Shocked that “moral values” was the issue that defeated them and re-elected President Bush, the LibDems are bleating on every air wave they can ride that they have moral values too. Yes, they certainly do – it’s just that some of those values are immoral. Not all. Confederate Southerners held many decent values – but on slavery they were morally wrong. No relativistic morals here, no “that’s just your opinion” situational ethics, no wiggles, hesitations, or qualifiers. Slavery is immoral, period – even the LibDems agree. Thus the teachable moment – for abortion is morally no different than slavery, the claim that one human being may own another as personal property to be disposed of if the owner so chooses. Thus we need to refer to abortion as “the peculiar institution,” and Roe v. Wade as disgracefully unconstitutional as Dred Scott. Watch for this to happen. Watch for abortion advocates to be increasingly on the defensive as they are made to understand the moral equivalence between abortion and slavery. This is a struggle that is going to get a lot uglier before it gets better. It will not, however, lead to any sort of secession or civil war. It requires no violence, just relentless repetition of this moral equivalence, as it finally begins to dawn on liberals that history will come to view advocacy of abortion as morally repugnant as advocacy of slavery. Conservatives are on the verge of seizing the high ground of history on abortion. Arlen Specter – Arrogant Arlen – is groveling before them. Clarence Thomas will be the next Chief Justice. More and more politicians will see it safe to jump on the abortion=slavery bandwagon. Soon the blood seeping from a wounded Roe v. Wade will be in the water, the feeding frenzy will be on, and the constitutionally non-existent “right to privacy” chewed to shreds. The day is not that far off when schoolkids will be asking their history teacher puzzled questions as to how there was a time in America when people passionately defended the morality of a mother killing her own baby. The dark chapter of America’s peculiar institution of abortion is coming to an end. "

This is where I moved the anemometer to a few days later. The pole is about 12 feet above the deck, putting the anemometer about 20 feet or so above the ground. 

This was the original installation on the back deck, which is some 10 feet off the ground. 

Who said predicting the weather was tough?

I've long been interested in the weather: how it works, what causes things like thunderstorms & lightning, all the varied and interesting types of clouds, and so forth. I watch each of the various weathermen avidly and am, at various times, amazed at how accurate and precise their predictions can be, or amused at just how far wrong they actually be. In recent years I've noticed the apparently large number of ordinary folks across the country and even worldwide who have their own weather stations, many of which are even viewable over the internet (see http://www.appalachian-weather.com/ as just one example). Some have formed specialized blogs and discussion groups (see Peach State Weather - http://www.bb.georgiawx.net/cgi-bin/peachstate/YaBB.pl - as a local example, or WeatherMatrix - http://www.weathermatrix.net/ - for a more "global" feel). Anyway, last week I finally gave in the the weatherbug and purchased my very own weather station, a wireless Vantage Pro by Davis. While I'm anxiously awaiting the software that will allow me to import the data into my computer and then onto a website (where? to be determined later), I've gone ahead and installed the instrument package (temp, humidity, barometer, etc.) and the anemometer/wind indicator outside. While they are most certainly not in the ideal locations, the station is up and running, and I'm quite pleased with it. Above are a few pictures of the setup .....

We've been doing a lot of work out back; here's a photo of the "big pine island" with 4 bird feeders in it. There's another in front of the big tree to the right.