Spring is Here. The Boats are Launched and the Legislature is Docked.

It has been a very busy two/three weeks for me. I worked the horse show at Hugo.

Usually during the summer I work just the horse shows here in Minnesota with some off time between for other things, but this year I have a regular job working at the double "H" stables / Haines Tree Service out of Stillwater.

It makes the Sunday end of show breakdown and cleanup day a lead in to a week at "HH". It is a little taxing and makes Monday long.

Yesterday Steve, Gary and I took the motorboat to the shop, we need to get the 135hp Johnson up and running.

We also have acquired a 28 foot pontoon boat and trailer. It needs some work. The deck needs replacement, the motor is shot, and the pontoons have a few dents.

But its twenty eight feet long and we will get it up and on the lake. It may have little power at first but it will have a gas grill.

We intend to launch it and anchor it as our flag ship. Then we can canoe and sail our other vessels around and also have a lounge area on the lake.

This is going to be great!

Changing the subject to give a little closure to the legislative session, the DFL at the last moment pulled out their plan - raise taxes. No one was surprised.

They seem to think that talking about trivial things till the last moment would jam the Governor to follow their lead.

They thought that they left him with the choice of signing on to their plan or force a government shutdown or a special session.

Bad assumptions by the big brains in the DFL.

The Governor was not moved by their tear soaked pleas to follow the words of Jesus and further empower the tax collectors. (How they got that interpretation, I still don't know.)

The Gov. vetoed their government employment plan and began taking charge of the States Budget and began line item "un-allotments" to balance the budget.

The typical and predictable wailing and gnashing of teeth commenced.

The press releases describing tales of woe and doom to come from this horrible action by the Governor have been issued constantly from all government quarters; State, County and City as well as all government subsidized enterprises and "non-profits".

We have been bombarded by threats that the “sky is falling” and other false threats for years.

All to induce fear in the populace to coerce them into following the DFL in there liberty thieving and tax guzzling ways.

It has worked for years.

But like Abe Lincoln (who died on April 15) says: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

I think the “F” in DFL no longer stands for “Farmer”, but “Fool”.

May in Minnesota

It is now the second week of May. Today is Mothers Day.

Here in Minnesota, the leaving of winter behind is now total, even though it is 30 degrees in International Falls.

The trees are leafing out, and the song birds are back and nesting. The clouds are racing by in front of a high pressure system bringing in bright, but cool Canadian air.

The first mowing of the year has been done in most yards and the tulips are opening brilliant red and yellow this morning. The coffee is perfect.

It is warming and this is one of the best canoe times of the year, no bugs yet. I'll be on the Saint Francis River meandering through parts of Sherburne County before it meets the Elk Rivers' trek to the Mississippi.

The Fishing opener was Friday and the Governor held his event just south of Forest Lake in White Bear Lake. I was in town and ate breakfast at the diner. It was a nice day but with a chilly wind and more clouds than blue sky.

In town, the large "workers rights" [communist] May Day parade at Powder Horn Park in Saint Paul had a float drive over an individual, nothing major but rather symbolic if you ask me.

In Saint Paul the legislature is now being compressed to the May 18 deadline and the demand for tax hikes is beginning to increase in pitch.

It is proposed by the DFL that we adopt a fourth income tax bracket, and raise all of the ones we already have.
This would make two of the highest income tax brackets in the nation exist here in industry crushing Minnesota.

Also they intend to raise taxes on alcohol consumers. The stuff for drinking, they still want to subsidies that intended for the gas tank.
[More irrational energy nonsense brought to you by the powerful environmental lobby.]

The tax-guzzling, special interest groups that live off of working Minnesotans are also making maneuvers for the new monies generated by the "legacy" amendment.

It was voted into law last election based on a false, fear mongering, tax funded, campaign that brow-beat Minnesotans into believing that our water was dangerously polluted and needed this additional remedy now.

To secure political support at the Capitol the so-called "sportsmen" joined with the so called "arts" lobby. They ended up splitting this new revenue stream and are giddy with new money, power and influence.

Watching such sycophantic and demeaning groveling and pawning by these groups and their members at the feet of these committee meetings, is embarrassing enough. To know that we are paying these people handsomely to behave so cravenly is more than a little disturbing.

Public Broadcasting here in Minnesota did well by their (our) marketing investment on behalf of the tax hike.

The Minnesota Film Board is angling for some of these "new arts dollars". They can be seen interviewed on "news" shows saying how a dollar they are given creates five in the economy.

They may understand lobbying and grant righting and all that, but they have a clear lacking in the understanding of basic economics.

Minnesota is vast and varied in terrain, vegetation and climate. There are advantages to making a movie here naturally. We do not need a "film board".

I don't think we need a department of tourism for many of the same reasons. Trust me, people will vacation in Minnesota without the MN Dept. Of Tourism.

They did before.

These closed-loops, that lobby for tax dollars with tax dollars, have contributed significantly to the unsustainable financial mess Minnesota and its industrious citizens are burdened under.

Things must change. Things will change.

Politically that is.

Minnesota will always be beautiful in May.

Green Bays' Jetsam Drifting to Minnesota.

There is much discussion lately around here in Minnesota, as well as amongst our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin, about the possibility of Brett Favre quarterbacking for the Minnesota Vikings.

Many people have been voicing strong opinions all around.

In Wisconsin, where the Green Bay Packers are the Government owned professional football team, they speak of betrayal and disappointment.

They also make taunting remarks usually about Superbowl victories and the possibility of Brett making it possible for the Vikes to actually win one.

In Minnesota most think Favre, although very talented, is past his prime.

I think most people, including the professional sport journalists, are not reading the data properly and are coming to wrong conclusions.

I do not believe that Mr. Favre has any intentions of the quarterback position with the Vikings.

I think Brett Favre is very possibly going to be on the coaching staff of the Minnesota Vikings.