Summer is Waning While Some are Whining.

It is nearing the end of September and the weather has been warm and mostly dry.

I have returned to a somewhat normal schedule. Tree work out of Stillwater.
My little car is about done, and I need a replacement.

The truck (our 83' ford 1 ton) needs tires. about 800+ dollars.
I also hope to bring the band saw up if I get the truck and tires.

I need a spot to park the saw, ideally a place where it can operate. Maybe at "HH".
I also would like a place nearby to park my motor boat and the little sailboat.

I am thinking about the coming winter, it is best to think ahead. I need boots, gloves, coat...

But today; Sunday, September 20, the sun is up and the coffee is on and I am warm.

I have been following with interest many things these days.

One is the effect Washington County's new "Land and Water Legacy Act", not to be confused with THE STATES new "Legacy Act" sales tax increase.

Washington County; my county, is big and beautiful. It borders the rugged Saint Croix river on the east, and comes to a point on the south end where it meets the Mississippi river, like the state of Illinois does where Ohio River meets our muddy Mississippi.

The main body of Washington County Minnesota is a rolling highground of plains and hardwoods sprinkled with little towns dotting the countryside surrounded by lots of farmland, all laced with fish-loaded lakes and streams that pool and drain the rain and snow that falls on this mid-Minnesota wonderland.

I live in the North West corner of the county, on Highway 61 in the town of Forest Lake.

It is a good description of the town. We have lakes and forests. I am happy here just some thirty five miles north of Saint Paul; Minnesota's capitol city.

This is just one of Eighty seven counties. Minnesota counties are generally large and they are all unique.

Washington county is preparing to raise its property tax levy 1%, and is also mulling over deciding how much they intend to participate with the "Land and Water Legacy program" passed by the county voters authorizing $10 million in bonding to purchase and preserve "environmentally sensitive lands" along lakes and rivers.

There are some lakes that are "impaired" as defined by the MPCA (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency). They have some algae blooms. they don't like the phosphorus reading.

Now the County is forced to deal with reality.

Do they want to complain that they have to raise property tax to cover costs because of reduced property values and less money from THE STATE, while taking on an additional $1.7 Million dollar annual principal and interest payment to purchase property and remove it from tax rolls.

And on a national level the discussion over health insurance is picking up apace.

I think that most things done by THE UNITED STATES should be done by THE STATES, and currently most things done by THE STATE should be done by THE COUNTIES and most things done by THE COUNTIES should be done by THE TOWNS or better yet by THE INDIVIDUALS.

I think the proposals being thrown about concerning "health insurance" are bad ideas.

I have thought a lot of ideas coming from the government class are bad, lots of bad ideas come from Saint Paul here in Minnesota.

They talk of Minnesota Nice. Well let me tell you, they are not so nice if you start to question them a little.

I thought the Wetland act was a bad idea. A one-size-fits-all, form and fee generating program that sounds good should be based on facts, not fanciful notions of flood control by swamp.

Boy did I get called names over that one. The Dept Commissioner of the DNR gave me a little lecture.

I thought the Septic "8020" rule was a bad idea, forcing people to immediately spend $20,000 + on a mound system prone to fail by freezing in Minnesota winters, (no matter what the global warming kooks in the state house say)is a bad way to "create" jobs in rural Minnesota.

It was suggested that I didn't care about children.

I thought the Forest Stewardship Act was an underfunded ruse to get more Sierra Club, anti-logging policies enacted on private property, as they seem to be getting the public property fairly locked up now. It would result in deadly and destructive forest fires

Why is a burnt stump better than a logged one? Jobs and power and products vs. wreck and ruin, destruction and ATMOSPHERIC CONTAMINANTS.

Hey you carbon-o-phobic types, where is your reasoning brain?

I was called a greedy agent of the timber industry who was just a Global Warming Denier, just like someone who denies the holocaust.

Never discuss the issue always attack the messenger.

I thought the recent State-Wide Legacy Act, that raised property taxes for water, property and the arts was a bad idea.

I thought the rhetoric surrounding the discussion was much too alarming for the conditions they were attempting to portray. Minnesota has clean air, fresh water and health forests. Children were not getting Methomoglobonemia but they kept bringing it up to scare voters.

I ended up getting our very own lovable Ron Schara right in my face asking me where I get my figures. I admitted I got mine from the same place he got his, MPCA, DNR, EPA... I don't think he was really listening at that point in our little "conversation".

Let me tell you, the "raise taxes and programs" crowd are nice and polite until you disagree with them. Then its venom and brick bats.

I could go on and on about my many, many, many experiences with snotty officious patronizing government agents and elected officials.

So, now I see more and more of regular Americans being called names by "journalists", "reporters", lawmakers and Presidents, all just because they may have ideas contrary to the government know-it-all's.

I think this is terrific.

Now more and more people are seeing what these people in power really think of us.

Last year we had a convention in Saint Paul that was attacked by the Democratic Party with infantry, bombs, fire and caustic weapons.

Most reporting was about whether the police overreacted.

Now these same Democrats in the news rooms are wondering if those demonstrating against an ever expanding government are, "corporate manufactured","ignorant","mostly racists","greedy doctors","too well dressed","unstable","dangerous","selfish","Un-American"

The Democrats, the lords of protest and civil disobedience(mostly government subsidized), cannot stand the notion of freedom loving Americans using their stage.

It galls them. I say Good.

I think it is fantastic that more and more of my fellow Americans and fellow Minnesotans experience the treatment I have been getting for over twenty years now, just for voicing my opinion.

Most people in government like their job and want to keep it. This motivates their reasoning and actions.

I am prepared to pay any government workers a lump sum as we close their agencies.

But we must close agencies, departments, silly studies, ridiculous grants, costly programs and at the same time dramatically reduce the tax burden on people.

Nothing else will really matter much.

At least not in a positive way.