Earlier this year, a tornado removed most of Chapman, Kansas.  Many of the residents rode out the storm in their basements, as Kansans are wont to do, and they survived.

Now the tiny town is rebuilding, with some help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  But they can have the money only if they rebuild without basements.

FEMA regulations prohibit recovery funds from being used to rebuild homes with basements if they are in a flood plain.  About 95% of Chapman is in a flood plain.

Story here.

Posted by Sharon under Libertarianism | No Comments »

In Shawnee County, Kansas, membership in the Libertarian Party is up 4.8% over the past 2 years.  Democrats are up 3.2%, Republicans are down 2.5%, “Unaffiliated” are up 2.5%, and the Reform Party is about to drop off the bottom of the chart.

In actual numbers, of course, we have a ways to go, but still….

Read the story here.

Posted by Sharon under Libertarianism | No Comments »

WARNING – WARNING – WARNING

This post contains explicit descriptions of avian sexual activity. Reader discretion is advised.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mourning doves are just too dumb to live.

It’s dangerous to place a value on intelligence, especially in non-mammals. After all, a number of creatures that have survived the longest without finding it necessary to make any evolutionary changes are not known for their intellect. Crocodiles and sharks come to mind.

But, still, from what I’ve seen, mourning doves just don’t have the sense God gave a fencepost. Maybe it’s just the doves out back of my house. In any case, that is one stupid bunch of birds.

Oh, sure, they make that sweet little noise that sounds like they’re, well, mourning. And they’re very pretty – all plump and soft-looking. And one of their cousins is supposed to represent peace. And their name and profile have been adopted by a successful line of lotions and shampoos.

Nevertheless.

I have a bird feeder and a birdbath within a few feet of my patio door, so there are a lot of birds out there a lot of the time. I get sparrows and blackbirds, blue jays and cardinals, robins and doves. The squirrels make more-or-less successful raids on the feeder, and the rabbits pick up whatever falls on the ground.

When I walk by the window or the door, they all scatter. The birds fly away, the squirrels jump to the tree, and the rabbits run. Even Twit, the baby rabbit who is inexorably destroying my impatiens, has the sense to fluff up his little white tail as a warning flag to the rest of his family, and hop away.

All except the doves, that is. They sit there, munching away, watching their cohorts head for safety, and looking confused. I swear, if I were a boa constrictor, I could slither over there, grab one of them, squeeze the life out of him, and have him half eaten before his buddies figured out anything was wrong.

“Hey, Gomer, look at that. They all left. Just leaves more for us, huh? Whaddya suppose that was all about, Gomer? Gomer? Where’d he go?”

During warm weather, of course, the birdbath lives up to its name. There always seems to be a bird over there, splashing and preening. In the winter, it serves only as drinking water.

The doves have the disconcerting habit of sitting there on the rim, facing away from the water, with their tails dragging in the water. In the summer, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. But in the winter I have seen as many as six of them, all facing outward, with their tails submerged in near-freezing water. I suppose they have no more feeling in their feathers than I have in my hair. But in mid-winter, my being outside with wet hair would have little survival benefit.

Earlier this year, I noticed a pair of doves on the patio, one of them being fed by the other. At first I thought it was parent and baby, but it soon became apparent that it was a mating pair, and he was offering her tidbits of food to get her in the mood.

Finally she decided the time was right, and hunkered down in what I have to assume is the approved gesture of receptivity. He strutted around to her backside, started to get himself in position – and fell off.

By then, my quasi-voyeuristic opportunity had turned into a raunchy Vaudeville act. As I left, he was following her around saying things like, “Aw, common, baby. Gimme another chance, huh? Really, that never happened to me before….”

Still, we do not lack for mourning doves. So some of them, somewhere, must be avoiding boa constrictors, keeping their tail feathers warm and dry, and mating successfully.

Just not, apparently, in my back yard.

Posted by Sharon under Laughter | No Comments »

It’s hot here.

It’s Kansas, it’s July, it’s hot.  Go figure.

Everyone around me is complaining about the heat.  Next February we will be complaining about the cold.  We complain when the wind blows, and when there is no breeze.  We complain when it rains, and when it’s too dry.  Anything but 72 degrees and sunny elicits howls of outrage.

Recently I listened to an item on the radio about some of our soldiers in the Middle East working in temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit.  Outside.  Wearing body armour.  Carrying lots of equipment.

I listened to the item in my air-conditioned car driving from my air-conditioned office to my air-conditioned house.

I have decided, as a sacrifice of gratitude, to try my best never to complain about the weather again.  It’s a small gesture, and it probably won’t affect anyone but me.  But I think that’s the way sacrifices work.

Posted by Sharon under Observations | No Comments »

I am astonished at the uses some people come up with for the internet.  This is probably frivolous, but it’s such fun I can’t resist passing it on.  And there is no way this could have been done 30 years ago.

Recently I received in change a dollar bill with “Track this bill at www.WheresGeorge.com” stamped across the front.  I went to the web site and entered the denomonation, series, and serial number, and found out that that bill was last logged in in Wichita.  I left a note saying where I received it and where I plan to spend it.  From now on, anyone who logs that bill in will see what I wrote, and I will get an email notification.

What fun!

Posted by Sharon under Observations | No Comments »

I have a hint for would-be writers: Learn to express yourself well with words alone. If you can’t get your idea across using only letters and spaces and a few numbers and other such symbols, then read some more and see how others manage it, or take a class.

I am considering asking for legislation limiting all writers to one instance of underlining and two exclamation points per month. And, by God, if you choose to use both of your exclamation point in one sentence, it had better be an announcement of the imminent Second Coming. Like in the next 5 minutes.

Posted by Sharon under Laughter | No Comments »

Two profoundly disturbing items were aired on NPR earlier this week:

This one, in which the mayor of New Orleans wonders aloud how to keep his city from being overrun with Mexican workers, and a Latino construction company owner in New Orleans complains that African-Americans he hires don’t want to work very hard.

This one, in which the Italian government has authorized the fingerprinting of Roma citizens, whether there is evidence of wrongdoing or not. As always, loss of liberty is presented as necessary for the majority, and beneficial for the exploited minority.

I hereby give myself permission to stop feeling guilty over the overt bigotry evident in my own family two generations ago.

Posted by Sharon under Observations | No Comments »

Late in May I drove to Denver as a delegate to the Libertarian National Convention. Not only was this my first presidential convention, but it was the longest car trip I have ever taken alone. So I had my car checked by mechanics I trust, went to the library and checked out an interesting book on CD, printed out driving instructions and maps from the internet, made sure my mobile phone was charged, and set off on my great adventure.

Before I left, someone asked me if I had ever seen the wind farm at Ellsworth. In fact, I had not. But I have seen wind farms before, so how big a deal could it be?

When I see a house or a car or a person at a distance, I have a pretty good idea of its size and the distance between it and me, simply because I’ve had long experience with houses and cars and people. Wind turbines, on the other hand, are not something I’ve ever lived in or driven or hugged; and when seeing them at a distance, perspective doesn’t come easily. There they sit, atop distant hills, their blades rotating sedately, even slowly. Or so it would seem.

Traveling west on I-70, that’s the first impression the wind farm at Ellsworth presents. But maybe half a mile after sighting the first turbine, the highway rounds a slight curve, and there are two turbines, right there. And I do mean right there.

I gasped, and the bottom fell out of my stomach. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what it was. There was nothing rational about that feeling. Rather it was the visceral, fight-or-flight (Flight! Flight!) response that makers of science fiction movies spend millions trying to produce in viewers. Looming in front of me was something mechanical, obviously the deliberate product of an intelligent creature, unbelievably huge, and it was MOVING.

What a rush!

I have done a little research since I got back, and the source I found says the towers are 200 to 300 feet tall, with the blades ranging from 65 to 130 feet long. They rotate 10 to 22 times per minute. Even taking the slowest rotation of 10 rpm, and a blade length of 100 feet to make the calculations easier, I come up with a speed of just over 70 mph for the tips of the blades. Wow.

Coming back, I noticed something that had been hidden from my view when I was headed west. On the south side of I-70, downhill from the road and going mostly unnoticed, is a series of the common windmills we’ve all seen for years, dutifully pulling water up out of the ground and dumping it in tanks for the cattle. I hope some great photographer will go out there and capture that contrast.

And I have a suggestion. I hope that whoever makes these decisions will create a pull-off area right there. I wanted badly to be able to stop and admire that impressive scene, but there was no way to do so safely.

I bet I’m not the only one.

TK Magazine, July, 2008

Posted by Sharon under Reprints from TK Magazine | No Comments »

Continuing the theme of blogs about my home….

In case anyone out there doesn’t know, I’m a libertarian. I bristle at concepts like “common good” and “collectivism” and “communal property.” It’s not that they are inherently bad ideas, especially for very small groups. It’s just that no two people can agree on a definition, and everyone wants to enforce his or her own definition.

Let me give you a trivial but telling example.

A surprising number of people expect libertarians to live out in the woods growing their own food and shooting anyone who comes on their property. Well, no. The concept of libertarianism is perfectly compatible with the idea of voluntarily giving up some of your freedoms by entering into a contract that suits your needs. I live in a condominium, and I pay monthly dues to the homeowners’ association to cover lawn mowing and other common-area maintenance, snow removal, painting, and roof repair. I have given up my freedom to paint my house any color I want in exchange for not having to paint at all. I can’t plant flowers in the common area, but I don’t have to mow or shovel snow. It suits me just fine, and if there comes a time when it no longer suits me, I can move.

The common area here is very pretty. There is a nice grassy area with trees and plantings. There’s even a little wadi that was put in to facilitate drainage when it rains. The land slopes, so there are retaining walls, and a little walking path.

And bushes. We have bushes.

Originally our homeowners’ dues included bush trimming. Well, not any more, they don’t.

I think it started when some of the homeowners began to consider the bushes up close to their own buildings their personal property, and not part of the communal property. Some of them even dug up the bushes, or replaced them with something else. According to the homeowners agreement they weren’t supposed to do that. But, hey, we’re not supposed to park cars permanently in our driveways, either, and my neighbors have had a pickup truck in their driveway for two years.

Once people started to see the bushes as their personal property, and considering that their dues were paying for getting the bushes trimmed, a number of homeowners decided they could specify whether, how, and when the trimming should take place. Some wanted the natural look, and didn’t want their bushes trimmed at all. Some claimed the bushes should be trimmed in the fall, and some in the spring. Some wanted the bushes cut way back, close to the ground. Others said that would kill the plants.

A few homeowners took to trimming their own bushes, and then demanded a refund of that part of their dues.

One fall we all got a mailing from the homeowners’ association board saying there would be no refunds, but we should let the homeowners association know whether we were each going to trim our own bushes or not. The lawn service company would then trim the bushes of only those who wanted the service. That mailing was remarkably patient and polite.

I can only guess at the response that generated. The next year, the board sent out another mailing saying we could all just trim our own damn bushes, and to heck with us. No reduction on dues, either. Screw us all. (I have taken liberties with the wording, but I could hear the tone.)

So now I own a pair of hedge trimmers, and I whack at the bushes outside my front door and beside my patio once in a while. We never talked about who would trim the bushes that sit exactly between our two houses, but my neighbor has taken to doing it himself, and he really does a good job.

I guess that makes up for the pickup truck.

Posted by Sharon under Laughter & Libertarianism | No Comments »

In the summer of 1996 I applied for a mortgage and bought the condominium where I still live.

I was newly divorced, and not particularly knowledgeable about such things. But I’m smart and my math skills are good and my realtor was and still is a personal friend. So it was that, twelve years ago this coming October, I sat in the offices of a real estate company signing a small mountain of papers. I did not read them, nor would I have understood them if I had. They were presented to me as the standard contracts for this situation, and I have no doubt that was exactly the case.

My realtor recommended I buy insurance on the contents of my condo, which I proceeded to do. It costs me a pittance every year to ensure that, if one of our Kansas tornadoes takes away my computer, furniture, clothes, dishes, and appliances, I can replace them. The dues I pay to the homeowners’ association every month provide for lawn mowing and other common-area maintenance, snow removal, and an escrow account for painting and roof repair. And hazard insurance on the building itself.

Not once in the past twelve years have I regretted that decision. I love my home; it makes me happy to live here. I have had no trouble with my mortgage company, nor they with me.

Earlier this year I succumbed to a barrage of advertising from my mortgage company, and began to look at refinancing. The interest rate they were offering was substantially lower than what I was paying. After annoying the heck out of them with a whole bunch of questions for several weeks, I decided to go ahead with it. They emailed me the paperwork, and this time I decided to run it by my attorney before signing.

The attorney found nothing wrong, but he did see that they were charging me for hazard insurance on the building itself. The mortgage company requires that the property be insured, and that’s understandable. But since my homeowners’ dues buy that for me, I asked the mortgage company to take that charge out of the contract, and they did so. I asked the insurance agent to fax a copy of the policy to the mortgage company, and they did so. Dust off hands, project accomplished, case closed.

So here’s my question: Whose responsibility was it to have found, twelve years ago, that I was paying twice for the same coverage? Since I choose to accept responsibility for my life and my decisions, I can hardly blame anyone else for this. I will consider the extra money I have spent my penance for not being a little more circumspect.

But I am hardly the only person living in a condominium, and I find it strange that the “standard” mortgage contract is the same for both houses and condos when, in fact, they should differ in this one important aspect. I also find it strange that this may not be part of the training for real estate agents.

I don’t intend to pursue this any further. But if you know someone who’s planning on buying a condo, you might share this with them.

Posted by Sharon under Observations | No Comments »