Ahhhh, spring. When a young man's fancy turns to....BLOGGING? Seems that this year along with the blossoms of spring, some new wounds have been opened, some old ones have been reopened, and life on JU otherwise goes on as usual. I'm not one to pick sides, but rather try to ride the fence when my ignorance overrides any other useful purpose. But I can see it's not the case for everyone. It's almost a shame that the blogging experience needs to take a back seat to petty feuds that have littl...

For anyone whose ever constructed a greenhouse, I have a question. I'm looking at exhaust fans for the structure; the greenhouse catalog advises 1 CFM displacement per cubic foot of greenhouse space, meaning I would need about 1000 CFM displacement (8x16x8). I am looking at DC fans, however, as I could power them with wind power with no loss for inversion to AC, as well as providing the house with backup power in the event of a power failure. The DC fans I have found are much smaller, however...

Now, I made this argument earlier as part of another subject entirely, but I'm going to go into it further here. One of the very interesting contradictions I find among some of the left is the tendency to browbeat and criticize myself and my wife for our "irresponsibility" in having a large family (five kids), while there are pockets of the planet that are overpopulated (and my having fewer kids is going to help India's overpopulation problem...HOW?!?). The contradiction comes from the fact t...

I'm sorry, folks. I'm about to get a brain hemmhorage from beating my head against the wall here. After reading the 5000th repetition of why I "wasted my vote" for voting for the candidate I believed in, I am astounded by the apparent stupidity of the Democrats who patronize this site. Now, I don't believe in the Republican Party platform, but as a rule, the Republicans and conservatives on this site have not made repeated ignorant attacks on me and my party. For those who don't know, I am...

I came home today to a pile of dog crap right behind our house that was not ours or our neighbor's dog's crap (I can tell by the size). It infuriated me because it obviously belonged to one of the plethora of strays that populate this small community. We are, of course, in the midst of working to homestead our property, and the prospect of a yard full of potential chicken killers is not an enticing one. I am hoping we can achieve some level of effectiveness with an electric fence, but even th...

Well, it's entirely possible I may have my car back together sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. I may be overly optimistic, but it's not far off. Then will come the ULTIMATE test: Did I put it back together RIGHT? Can't say this is the most fun I've had in awhile, that's for sure!

Got that? Good. While I am firmly entrenched that believe that Jose Canseco's steroid allegations have been greatly overhyped in the interest of selling a book, I am astounded by the collective apathy of the owners and the commissioner's office. This concern is founded on the fact that baseball has always established itself as holding a moral high ground because of its position that gambling is its unpardonable sin. Steroid use is as bad as gambling, in many ways worse. With steroid use, a...

So Mike Greenwell wants an MVP. The former BoSox outfielder and 1988 runner up to admitted steroid user and alleged (by ME, but still "alleged") classless moron Jose Canseco has asked that he receive the MVP over 16 years after the fact. While Greenwell might ALMOST have a point, it's lost in baseball's absolute inability to track down several years of steroid use and give the awards to runners up. It's also lost in the point that steroids were not specifically banned by baseball, and thus...

Well, in our ongoing attempt to "officially" become homesteaders, I borrowed a greenhouse book from the library. Unlike most of the other books I have checked out, this one is VERY dry, but it did open my eyes to some possibilities I hadn't considered. First off, we're going to have a dual venting system that will exhaust the hot air from the greenhouse into the house (it's going to be attached) and supplement our heating in the winter. Since we're converting to wood heat before winter hits, ...

In the aftermath of the Iraqi elections, the Kurds quite possibly came out the big winners. By obtaining 26% of the seats in Iraq's equivalent of Congress or Parliament, they virtually assured that the two other parties will need to go through them to gain the 2/3 majority necessary to pass Iraqi laws. There's a lesson in this, and one that I have been harping on for some time. For a third party to gain significant power in the US, they don't need to win a majority, but simply to obtain enoug...

I want to further elaborate on my blog yesterday. No, I'm not apologizing, no I'm not taking back anything I said. But I feel an elaboration is in order. Shades, in some small way you're right (not exactly right, but close enough). I'm not exactly projecting, but I have been tiptoeing around certain topics here on the blogsite because there are some fragile emotions involved. And I don't want to make a comment that I would regret for sometime to come. I could give some good answers to...

The Democrats just don't get it. Despite being told, repeatedly, by their opposition, WHY we cannot and will not endorse the Democrat Party, they bury their heads in the sand. They essentially call us liars and resort to the divisive, infantile tactics that cost them a VERY winnable presidency in 2004. What surprises me about the whole procedure is this: Libertarians, Constitutional Party supporters, Greens, Republicans, and a whole host of other non-Democrats have suggested why their cher...

In an earlier article, I defined the difference between an atheist and an antitheist. I am noticing a lot of antitheists trending towards being specifically antiCHRISTIAN. For example, I notice outrage lacking when California schools teach units on Islam, requiring students to take Muslim names and recite Muslim prayers. Yet, they take offense with the name of Christ. I notice further that Michael Newdow hasn't filed an injunction against the use of Roman and Norse gods in the names of five o...

As an aspiring homesteader, I am increasingly disillusioned with the government as I learn more and more. I have long contended that, while it is morally wrong for a man to steal, it is a greater moral offense to remove from a man his means of self sufficiency and demand he indenture himself to you to get it back. And yet, this is precisely what the American government has done over the course of its history. Masses of immigrants arrived on our shore to find a new hope, and a new future for ...

I have had an interesting time reading the articles over the past four months. What has especially amused me has been the statements about "getting the government we deserve" and how "we're all to blame for supporting these cretins" (these aren't EXACT quotes from specific articles, but they do sum up a general feeling of bipartisan malfeasance). WELL, let me take you back a few months to when I was standing on my Libertarian soapbox, and presenting not only OUR party platform, but those...